UK weather: 70mph winds and rain to hit Britain in run-up to Christmas

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for rain and wind for parts of Britain on Sunday and Monday, with 80mm of rain expected and winds of up to 70mph.

Gales are expected to affect parts of eastern Scotland and eastern England at times during Sunday and Monday.

Forecasters say: "Gusts between 55 and 65mph seem likely to the east of hills, and in excess of 70 mph over hill tops. The public should be aware of the possibility of minor disruption, in particular to road travel."

Scotland will see rain with the heaviest in the west "where 30-50 mm is likely within a 24-hour period and perhaps 80mm or more over some hilly areas." Snow-melt is expected to add to these totals.

Around 40mm of rain has been forecast for areas of northern England and the Met Office says this should cause some "rather tricky driving conditions, but rivers do seem likely to rise again over parts of Yorkshire."

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Chief forecaster Leon Brown at The Weather Channel tells AOL Travel that next week will see a mild start but it will be quite wet across the north with strong to locally gale-force winds on Monday and 20mm of rainfall over central Scotland, while mainly dry over central and southern Britain.

"A cold front will be waving around over central Britain on Tuesday and then over the south on Christmas Eve with pulses of rain moving from west to east," he says. "The north will become colder and clearer, but with wintry showers over north and west Scotland during Tuesday and Wednesday."

Leon adds: "The rain should finally clear the south on Christmas Eve night, but could be quite a wet in the afternoon and evening over southern Britain.

"Currently Christmas Day is looking crisp and mainly clear with a frosty day in the north and evening frost over central and southern Britain. There is a risk though that rain may linger a little longer over the far south of England and spoil the morning."

For anyone travelling after Christmas Day, Mr Brown advises to watch the forecasts "since it looks like low pressure will bring some very unsettled weather from the 26th to 28th December."

He says that we should expect often windy and some high rainfall totals with a snow risk in the north.