The Met Office issued a rare “danger to life” warning yesterday in relation to Storm Ashley’s destructive winds that could lead to large coastal waves and loose beach material that pose a risk to human safety
The Met Office has issued a fresh batch of weather warnings as Storm Ashley batters the uk with 80mph and widespread flooding.
Storm Ashley is the first named storm system of the season, and comes with a rare “danger to life” warning due to the risk of large coastal waves and loose beach material posing a risk to human safety. Torrential rain is expected to cause widespread travel chaos, with the Environment Agency issuing hundreds of flood alerts.
Initially, the national forecaster issued an amber alert for western parts of Scotland, which still remains in place with the updated warnings. However, another amber alert for wind has now been issued for Northern Ireland. The regions affected will be Co. Antrim, Co. Fermanagh, Co. Londonderry, and Co. Tyrone. It will remain in place from 1pm until 8pm today.
The amber alert means that there is a “good chance” of power cuts, damage to buildings, widespread travel disruption, flying debris that could cause injuries or even fatalities, and potential road closures.
Meanwhile, the yellow alert which covered a large part of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and northern England has been extended to encompass a larger area. The Met Office explained: “Warning area extended a little further south over northern England to include parts of Lancashire, all of Cumbria, Northumberland and Durham.” A full list of affected areas is available at the end of this article.
The storm, which was named by Met Eireann as it’s expected to hit the Republic of Ireland first, will be most severe across Scotland’s west coast, which is where the howling 80mph gusts will be seen. There is also a “good chance” of power cuts in the area.
Weather maps show the storm vortex moving across the Atlantic battering the west coast of Ireland and Northern Ireland before the tempest makes in presence felt in Britain. As the centre of the storm moves north and west, high winds will whip the UK with gusts of up to 80mph in Scotland while Wales is forecast to see gusts of up to 65 mph with similar windspeeds in north west England. The winds are set to get stronger throughout the day before dissipating on Monday.
Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Tony Wisson, said: “Storm Ashley will bring strong winds for most of the UK on Sunday before it clears on Monday, with a chance of some disruption across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northwest England and West Wales.
“A period of especially strong winds are expected on Sunday afternoon and evening in western Scotland, where gusts could potentially reach 70-80mph in exposed areas and an Amber warning for winds has been issued here. More generally 50-60 mph are possible in some inland areas in other parts of the warning area, especially Northern Ireland and western Scotland, and perhaps up to 60-70 mph along exposed coasts and hills. These strong winds in conjunction with high spring tides, may cause some disruption.”
Regions and local authorities affected:
Central, Tayside & Fife
- Angus
- Clackmannanshire
- Dundee
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Perth and Kinross
- Stirling
Grampian
- Aberdeen
- Aberdeenshire
- Moray
Highlands & Eilean Siar
- Na h-Eileanan Siar
- Highland
North East England
- Durham
- Gateshead
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Northumberland
- South Tyneside
- Sunderland
North West England
- Blackpool
- Cumbria
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
Northern Ireland
- County Antrim
- County Armagh
- County Down
- County Fermanagh
- County Londonderry
- County Tyrone
Orkney & Shetland
- Orkney Islands
- Shetland Islands
SW Scotland, Lothian Borders
- Dumfries and Galloway
- East Lothian
- Edinburgh
- Midlothian Council
- Scottish Borders
- West Lothian
Strathclyde
- Argyll and Bute
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Renfrewshire
- Glasgow
- Inverclyde
- North Ayrshire
- North Lanarkshire
- Renfrewshire
- South Ayrshire
- South Lanarkshire
- West Dunbartonshire
Wales
- Ceredigion
- Conwy
- Denbighshire
- Gwynedd
- Isle of Anglesey
- Pembrokeshire
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