Storm Ciaran: How will it affect Yorkshire and Lincolnshire?

Hot on the heels of Storm Babet, which brought flooding and disruption to large parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, another named storm, Ciaran, is on its way to the UK.

Why do we have a named storm?

The Met Office has named the area of low pressure sweeping in from the southwest late on Wednesday as "Ciaran". It's the third named storm to affect parts of the UK and Ireland this autumn.

Storms are given names by the Met Office to provide a consistent message and to help communicate when severe weather is on its way.

The naming of Ciaran is mainly due to the strength of the winds expected to the south and southwest of the UK, especially the Channel Islands, where there are amber weather warnings in force for severe gales.

What warnings do we have in place?

For our part of the world there is currently a yellow warning for Yorkshire for rain, from 6am on Thursday until 6am Friday.

Around 20-30mm could fall quite widely during a 24-hour period, with potentially 40-60mm locally (this is nearly half a month's worth).

The highest rainfall totals are currently expected down the eastern slopes of the Pennines and over the North York Moors.

In addition winds will be strong at times, especially for the coastline - where gale force gusts are expected to develop Thursday morning and again Friday morning. This will exacerbate the rainfall and produce some very wild conditions to eastern parts of the region at times.

What effect will Storm Ciaran have on Yorkshire and Lincolnshire?

After a spell of rain during the early hours of Thursday, further showery outbreaks - forming in bands - will affect parts of the region through the day and into early Friday.

Some areas will escape with little or no impacts. But the ground is saturated after weeks of unsettled weather already, and further rain is both unwelcome and problematic.

Where showery bands stall, rainfall totals will rise, and this could lead to further flooding.Is this the end of the unsettled weather?

Unfortunately, conditions for the week ahead remain unsettled with further periods of wet and windy weather heading our way.

Although the UK isn't expecting a low pressure system quite as dramatic as Ciaran, low pressure is in charge for much of the week ahead with more rain returning for a time on Saturday.

At this stage Bonfire Night looks showery and windy and colder.

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