Yellow weather warning issued as Storm Kathleen moves in on Saturday
Drivers should expect travel disruption, as roads, as well as air and ferry services are expected to be impacted
A yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office ahead of Storm Kathleen hitting the UK this weekend.
Blustery conditions are set to arrive on Friday as the storm, named by the Irish Meteorological Service, Met Eireann, rolls in.
The weather system is expected to bring gusts of up to 60mph-70mph in exposed areas along the west coast of England and Scotland on Saturday, and 50mph more widely.
Drivers should expect travel disruption, as roads, as well as air and ferry services are expected to be impacted.
The RAC has “strongly urged drivers to avoid exposed coasts and higher routes where the impact of the very strong winds is most likely to be felt.”
There is a small chance that injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties, the Met Office said.
Power cuts and issues with mobile phone connection are also expected.
Saturday will experience “unseasonably wet and windy” conditions, including heavy rain across parts of Scotland and potential outbreaks across western parts and North East England, Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said.
The yellow weather warning stretches the length of the UK from Cornwall to the west coast of Scotland, extending to cover Edinburgh and Glasgow from 8am to 10pm on Saturday.
The forecast and warnings
There is likely to be “15-25mm of rain, much of this falling in around six hours with a few locations seeing up to 35mm overnight” in the central, Tayside & Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian Borders and Strathclyde areas, says the forecaster.
A yellow warning for snow is in place on Friday from the early hours through to 9am covering central, Tayside & Fife, Grampian, Highlands & Eilean Siar and Strathclyde, with downfalls particularly expected over higher ground.
There could be 10 cm or more of snow in places above 300 metres but 2-5 cm of snow is expected fairly widely in ground above 250 metres.
The Environment Agency has 12 flood warnings and 93 flood alerts in place in England on Thursday morning, largely in southern areas.
Temperatures will be mild, despite the wind and rain, Mr Burkill added: “There is a good chance we could see highs of 20C which would be the first time we have seen 20C this year.”
Storm Kathleen will mark the second time a UK named storm has reached the letter K, following Storm Katie in March 2016.
It will be the eleventh named storm in eight months.
Storm seasons run from the start of September to the end of the following August.
No storm season has ever got beyond the letter K since the Met Office began naming storms in 2015.
Last year’s storm season, which ran from September 2022 to August 2023, made it only to the letter B, with Storm Betty in August.
By contrast, this year’s season has seen storm Agnes in September 2023, Babet in October, Ciaran and Debi in November, Elin, Fergus and Gerrit in December, Henk, Isha and Jocelyn in January 2024, and now Kathleen in April.
Not all of the alphabet is used when naming storms.
The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are omitted, in line with convention established by the US National Hurricane Centre.
This means the storm names still available for the current season are Lilian, Minnie, Nicholas, Olga, Piet, Regina, Stuart, Tamiko, Vincent and Walid.
The Met Office’s list of storm names is shared with Met Eireann in Ireland and KNMI, the Dutch national weather forecasting service.
Kathleen was named by Met Eireann.
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