Will Storm Ivo affect Scotland? Met Office addresses impact as gales to batter UK
Portuguese meteorologists have named today's bout of rain and wind "Storm Ivo", after it caused chaos across the Europe this morning. Ivo is the third storm to make headlines recently after Storm Éowyn and Storm Herminia have ravaged the UK over the past week.
But now Storm Ivo is set to hurtle towards the UK. Southern England will be the worst affected as East Sussex, West Sussex and Kent will see plenty of rain this afternoon and into this evening.
While it looks like Scotland will be safe from Ivo, southern England will see yet more stormy weather, after storm Herminia struck this week. But this latest storm will be the mildest of the three, the Met Office has claimed.
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The storm hasn't been named in the UK because its effects won't be as significant as those of Storm Éowyn, which caused widespread disruption, over 120 fallen trees, and killed two people across the UK and Ireland. Éowyn caused the Met Office to issue rare red weather warnings across Scotland, and many schools and offices were closed.
The south coast will see winds hitting 50mph, though Devon looks most vulnerable throughout evening rush hour, reported the Mirror.
The Met Office website states: "Cloud thickening across the very far south, with some outbreaks of rain, possibly heavy, affecting the far south coast."
Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: "It is technically Storm Ivo, albeit not causing much in the way of disruption for the UK... We are going to see some heavy rain, pushing across southern parts into tomorrow (Wednesday).
"There has always been a bit of uncertainty as to exactly how far north this rain is going to get, but I think we're getting a bit more confident in the idea that we're going to see some heavy rain pushing initially across parts of Southwest England and then Southeast England.
"It's really just southern, most counties just about staying to the south of London, but it could push a little bit further north as we go through Wednesday and so a wet picture there."
The Environment Agency is so concerned about the coming rain in southern England that it has 25 flood warnings in place, including Fittleworth on the Western River Rother in West Sussex and the River Loddon and River Blackwater at Swallowfield in Berkshire, which flows into the River Thames.
More than 100 people were evacuated from their homes due to flooding in Somerset this week. A major incident was declared by Somerset Council, which worked with police and paramedics to get families to safety.
While Storm Ivo is not set to disrupt Scotland, widespread repairs are still being done to tidy the damage caused by last week's extreme weather event, and thousands were reportedly still without power yesterday.
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