Just when you thought we couldn’t get any more rain and flooding as well as strong wind. In all honesty the next 3-4 day stretch looks to be the stormiest of winter with a tremendously turbulent spell of weather gathering out over the Atlantic.

WARNING ISSUED FOR SEVERE GALES, FLOODING RAIN, SNOW AND ICE

There’s a large temperature contrast north and south over the Atlantic that’s driving a super charged 200+mph jet towards the UK. With a dip just west of Ireland, there’s tremendous ‘bundling’ of energy with steep pressure gradient not just between Iceland and Azores but north-south over the UK.

This will drive widespread gusts easily into the 55-65 mph range across northern Ireland and the UK with coasts and exposed ridges expected to see gusts in excess of 80-90 mph. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see gusts over Aonach Mor and or Cairngorm exceed 130 mph.

IMPORTANT FOR TRAVELLERS

Wind direction is important and due to many major transport routes with large volume of lorries running north-south (M74/M9/A9) there’s HIGH RISK of lorries being blown over!

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Check out the energy streaming across the Northern UK at the 500mb level. Vertically stacked winds from 500mb down can transfer downward energy resulting in higher than expected gusts and therefore we need to watch out for damaging winds pretty much anywhere through the early hours and rush hour tomorrow.

The strongest winds are expected between 3-10am Friday

Saturday shall start off very windy also.

These storm-force winds will drive in an additional 2-4 inches of rain within the next 5 days.

Following the passage of the cold front, expect a drop in temperature and real bitter feel in the gale to severe gale-force gusts. Snow possible to low levels, significant accumulation over higher ground.

See this morning’s video for more.

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