UK set to be battered by high winds as Met Office warns of 90mph gusts
The UK is bracing for a blustery few days of weather, with residents in the north of England and Scotland told to brace for gusts of up to 90mph.
The Met Office has already issued a yellow alert for wind on Wednesday and Thursday for parts of Northern Ireland, most of Scotland and the north of England, but the forecaster has warned this could be upgraded.
Weather experts are predicting the entire country will be battered by high winds, with Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan warning that "this whole week is going to see quite a disturbed weather pattern developing across the UK".
The forecast for next week
Forecasters have predicted that the worst of the wind looks likely to hit midweek, with a 24-hour weather warning coming into force from 6pm on Wednesday.
The area affected stretches down from the Orkney Islands to parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as a weather system moves in.
"That’s likely to bring some severe gales and possibly storm force winds to parts of this region. Western parts of Scotland look like bearing the brunt of the strongest winds, where we could see gusts of 80mph to 90mph on Wednesday night and Thursday morning," Mr Morgan said.
"That’s strong enough to bring some quite widespread disruption, and it’s an area of the country that’s seen several named storms this winter season already."
The meteorologist added that there was a possibility this could become a named storm itself, and closer to the time the warnings issued may need to be escalated.
What does a yellow weather warning mean?
As part of the yellow wind warning, the forecaster said there was the potential of inland gusts of up to between 60mph and 70mph, with exposed coasts and hills seeing speeds reaching 90mph.
"It’s not just going to be strong winds this week," said Mr Morgan, who warned there could be snow in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, adding there was likely to be snow and ice warnings issued over the next few days.
The bad wintery weather won't just be for the northern parts of the UK either.
"The southern parts of England and Wales will see their turn. It looks very, very windy in the south at this stage for Friday," he said.
"There could be some quite widespread travel disruption in parts of the UK through this week."
He added: "All parts of the UK will see some very strong winds at times.
"It’s Scotland and the North’s turn on Wednesday and into Thursday, and then it’s probably going to be the southern parts of England and Wales that will see the very strongest winds on Friday."