Weather: Met Office issues warnings for wind and rain with gusts of up to 80mph and 70mm of rain possible

A yellow wind warning is in place from 4pm today (December 4) to 9am tomorrow (December 5) for the Highlands and Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland and Strathclyde.

A yellow wind warning covers the East Midlands, the East of England, North West England, Northern Ireland, SW Scotland, Lothian Borders, Strathclyde, Wales, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber from 3pm tomorrow to 6am on Friday (December 6).

A yellow warning for rain and wind is in place from 3pm on Friday to 6am on Sunday (December 8), covering the East Midlands, the East of England, London and South East England, North East England, North West England, South West England, Wales, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.

Neil Armstrong, Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “A spell of strong winds will affect parts of northern Scotland from Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning. Winds will initially be south or southeasterly, but turn westerly during Thursday morning. Gusts will reach 50-60 mph widely with 65-75mph possible in places, especially around exposed coasts.

“A band of rain will also move eastwards across the UK overnight, bringing heavy rain to most parts of the UK as it crosses the country. We expect this rain to clear the southeast of England by 7am on Thursday morning, before another spell of wet and windy weather begins.”

Mike Silverstone, Deputy Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “While there is still uncertainty about the track and depth of the low pressure, Friday night and Saturday will be wet and very windy across parts of the UK.

“Some model solutions have the low pressure further north and much deeper, bringing very strong winds and heavy rain, whilst other model solutions have the low pressure further south and not as deep, still bringing unsettled weather but not as impactful."

“A Yellow National Severe Weather Warning for wind and rain has been issued for the whole of Wales and England from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. The highest accumulations of rain may occur in northern Wales and northern England, where up to 50-70mm of rain may fall. More widely, 15-25mm of rain is possible across the warning area. Gusts of up to 80mph are possible around western coasts, with 40-60mph gusts more widely across the warning area. Some further hill snow is possible in the north above 200m.”