Is there really a hurricane heading towards the UK?

The short answer to the question 'Is there a hurricane heading towards the UK?' is no. The slightly longer answer is that tropical storms which form in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean regularly send their remnants towards Britain.

Currently the Met Office says there's a lot of weather activity in the Atlantic at the moment which is being reported with attention-grabbing headlines by many newspapers.

One area of low pressure, a depression currently to west of the UK, is particularly large spanning most of the North Atlantic.

There's also Hurricane Gonzalo threatening Bermuda which is set to become a post-tropical storm which could affect the UK early next week. Although equally, the storm could dissipate as it crosses the Atlantic.

All this comes exactly 27 years after The Great Storm with hurricane-strength winds did batter south-eastern parts of the UK in October 1987.

Of the depression currently to the west of the UK, the Met Office says: "While it is fairly large in its size, it’s not particularly intense, powerful or unusual. This means that – while it may look impressive on the charts – it’s not going to bring anything out of the ordinary for the UK over the next few days.

Over the other side of the Atlantic near Bermuda, Hurricane Gonzalo is currently expected to track north and then east across the ocean over the coming days.

The Met Office says there is large uncertainty about the potential track of this storm, with some models suggesting that the remnants could move across the UK whilst others show them staying away from our shores.

The US National Hurricane Center, based in Miami, Florida, issues forecasts every six hours updating the expected track of any tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic.

The advisory graphic issued by the Center at 7am on Friday (above) suggests a powerful hurricane will pass Bermuda before weakening as it heads north and then east. As it moves north over cooler ocean waters it loses its tropical characteristics and becomes a typical North Atlantic storm normal for the time of year.

At 7am on Friday the hurricane was some 300 miles south south west of Bermuda with sustained winds of 140 mph. There's a hurricane warning in force for the island.

The current forecast track brings the remnants of Gonzalo close to the UK but there is a wide margin of error recorded on the chart indicated by the white line. The times on the chart are US Eastern Daily Time which is five hours behind UK time.