Flood and weather warnings stay in place as Storm Lorenzo heads for UK
Flood and weather warnings remained in place on Thursday as Storm Lorenzo made its way towards the UK.
While parts of England, Scotland and Wales got off to a cold but dry start, the Met Office warned of strong winds and rain later in the day.
A yellow weather warning is in place for Northern Ireland between 3pm and 10pm as gusts could reach up to 60mph in coastal areas.
The Met Office said wind and rain will begin to develop over Northern Ireland, south-west Scotland, Wales and western and central England on Thursday afternoon.
Dry start for many before turning cloudier and windier from the west with rain developing over Northern Ireland, SW Scotland, Wales & western & central England this afternoon. Gales developing over parts of Northern Ireland later. More here: https://t.co/cQSfu1VDbo ^Steve pic.twitter.com/jBLUgOXns5
— Met Office (@metoffice) October 3, 2019
As of 8.30am on Thursday, the Environment Agency had 11 flood warnings and 44 flood alerts in place for England, mostly for the West Midlands, the North West and North East.
Storm Lorenzo will contain the remnants of Hurricane Lorenzo, which has been moving north-east through the northern Atlantic, passing close to the Azores.
Met Office chief meteorologist Andy Page said: “By the time Storm Lorenzo reaches our latitudes, it will be a low-pressure system that we’re accustomed to seeing at this time of year, but our partner, Met Eireann, is expecting impacts from the strong winds and heavy rain to affect the Republic of Ireland.
“Across much of the rest of the UK we’re anticipating the impacts will be minimal, but we have issued yellow wind warnings for Northern Ireland and parts of south-west England and South Wales.”
Met Eireann, the Republic of Ireland’s national weather service, has issued a Status Orange warning for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Kerry and Limerick between 6pm on Thursday and 3am on Friday.
It warns that gusts from Storm Lorenzo could reach 75mph in coastal regions.
The Met Office’s yellow warning for south-west Wales and England remains in place between 4am and 4pm on Friday.
It states that inland gusts could reach 55mph, while coastal areas could be hit by up to 60mph winds.
Later on Friday however the wind is expected to have died down as the weather system finally clears to the south of the UK.
Temperatures will begin to cool in northern parts of the UK, falling to single figures in Scotland and and dipping as low as 6C (42.8F) in Newcastle.
The Met said the rest of the weekend will be “changeable” as Saturday will see another band of rain moving in from the west.
Sunday is expected to be brighter in many central parts of the UK, and may see temperatures of 18C (64.4F) or 19C (66.2F) before the rain turns heavy again overnight.
Further rain is expected across the North East of England and Scotland.
