Storm Éowyn ‘probably strongest to hit UK in at least 10 years’, says Met Office
Storm Éowyn has been “pretty exceptional” and was “probably the strongest storm” to hit the UK in at least 10 years, the Met Office has said. A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire in Scotland yesterday, and parts of Ireland saw the highest windspeeds since records began after they reached 114mph in Mace Head, Co Galway.
Kacper Dudek, 20, died after a tree fell on his car at Feddyglass, Raphoe in Co Donegal, early on Friday. Irish police are investigating the incident. More than a million Brits faced power outages, and there was significant travel disruption across the UK and Ireland.
The Scottish Government said 106,000 properties were without power in Scotland late on Friday evening. ScotRail has announced that all trains will be off until midday at the earliest on Saturday 25 January.
More than 1,100 flights were cancelled on Friday, with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow airports the worst affected. The Met Office has said that while the storm eased slightly overnight, those carrying out recovery work in Scotland will still face some “fairly difficult” conditions.
A yellow warning for strong winds is in place for much of Scotland until 3pm on Saturday, as winds could reach 50-60mph inland, 60-70mph on exposed coasts and hills and possibly 70-80mph in the Northern Isles. Yellow snow and ice warnings were in place until 10am in Northern Ireland and 11am in parts of Scotland.
READ MORE: Storm Éowyn in Scotland LIVE: Disruption continues in aftermath of 100mph gusts
Meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “The winds have still been strong nonetheless overnight, so it’s definitely not the calm after the storm today. It’s certainly a calmer day, but there is still going to be strong winds around, particularly across Scotland today, but for most of the UK, it’s certainly a much brighter and less windy picture, at least for most of Saturday.
“Thousands of homes (are) still without power this morning, thousands of trees came down onto power cables, and a lot of disruption to transport will continue, probably through the next few days, and I think that there’s still going to be some fairly difficult conditions for recovery operations.”
On Saturday morning Network Rail Scotland said nearly 400 “incidents of damage” have been found including more than 120 reports of fallen trees following Storm Éowyn. Signalling systems, overhead wires, stations, boundary fencing, level crossings and train depots were also damaged.
But the bad weather is far from over. Although Saturday will be brighter than yesterday for large parts of the UK, a new weather front from the south west is set to bring wet and windy weather, with a chance of local flooding as we move through this weekend.
A yellow warning for heavy rain is in place from 8am on Sunday to 6am on Monday, bringing a chance of local flooding for parts of the UK. South East, South West and North West England, as well as Wales, south-western parts of Scotland, and Northern Ireland, are covered by a yellow wind warning until 3pm on Sunday.
Some exposed coasts and hills may feel gusts up to 70mph, said the Met Office. Heavy rain is forecast in central and southern England, and most of Wales on Sunday morning followed by heavy thundery showers.
Much of the warning areas will see 10-20mm of rainfall and 30-50mm is expected over higher ground. A further heavy spell that evening could mean as much as 80mm of rain falls.
“Given recent heavy rain, this extra rainfall could lead to some local surface water and river flooding”, the Met Office said.
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