The Met Office have issued a yellow National Severe Weather Warning for strong winds across Wales and southern England and a yellow warning for heavy rain in Northern Ireland.

This afternoon (Friday 26th) Met Éireann issued a red wind alert – the highest category of alerts in the Irish warning system – due to wind gusts expected to reach 80 to 90mph in parts of southwest Ireland on Friday evening.

Will Lang is a Chief Forecaster at the Met Office. He said: “Storm Hannah will sweep in from the west during Friday evening and Saturday bringing strong north-westerly winds to Ireland and then parts of the UK; the strongest and most damaging winds will be felt across Ireland.

“We have issued a yellow wind warning for mainly southern parts of the UK where we’re likely to see inland gusts of 45-55mph inland and stronger gusts of around 60-70mph in exposed coastal locations.

“Trees are coming into full leaf and many people will be on holiday, so the impacts of a late-April storm may differ subtly from one in mid-winter.”

“We have also issued a yellow rain warning for Northern Ireland, where a band of heavy rain could bring 30 to 40mm of rain during Saturday morning, leading to some localised flooding.”

Last weekend over the Easter Bank Holiday the UK saw plenty of warm, dry and sunny weather due to a large area of high pressure shielding the country from Atlantic weather systems.  This area of high pressure has now broken down allowing the current low pressure system, Storm Hannah, to make headway into the UK.  Will added: “We’re going to see an unsettled period over the next few days, but the forecast for later next week indicates the return of high pressure, bringing more settled conditions.

“Storm Hannah will move away from the UK during Saturday followed by a transient ridge of high pressure bringing more settled weather to the UK for Sunday, good news for London Marathon runners.”  

The Storm Naming project is a partnership between the Met Office and Met Eireann.

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