Media storm in a teacup?

In the wake of intense Atlantic storm St Jude, the Daily Express newspaper is keen to cause a stir by whipping up new warnings about an inbound 'deadly storm' for this weekend.

It is fair to say that an area of low pressure develops on Saturday which will indeed bring more heavy rain and strong winds to the UK.

Comparisons with the ‘St Jude’s Day storm’ however are wide of the mark and the Met Office advise that - at this stage - this article can be read as unnecessary scaremongering.

There is the possibility of gale force winds in some areas, particularly through the English Channel and the Irish Sea this weekend, but we don’t expect gusts to be anything like the exceptionally strong winds we saw on Monday.

In fact, the winds are more likely to be similar to those we saw during the day last Sunday – the day before the big storm. This weekend's low is likely to bring more widespread windy conditions, whereas St Jude was much more concentrated and critical.

The stormy weather will however be more biased towards the west and north of England.

The forecast for the NW indicates that there will be more rain on Saturday for a while, which turns more showery into Sunday.

Currently, forecasts suggest that we will see several low pressure systems affecting the country during this week, which is a fairly typical picture for UK weather at this time of year.

Of course, gale force gusts do bring risks, and the low pressure systems coming through over the next few days are likely to be lead to some rough seas and big waves around some coasts, as well as some heavy rain.

The Met Office and Environment Agency will closely monitor developments and risk of impact over the next few days.