Met Office severe weather warnings for the 1st of February 2014
This is not the start to February that most people in the UK want to see. After a wet and windy day on Friday, Saturday the 1st of February, for most of us, will be an extremely wet and windy day with potential for some quite serious disruption, and for some, potential for more severe flooding. The worst of the rain will happen in the early hours of the morning, but with much of the country already extremely saturated, the affects of the weather are likely to last the entire weekend. Strong winds are expected to move Eastwards across the country through Saturday and into Sunday mornning.
The met office have issued Yellow weather warnings of wind and rain for much of the country, and as the rain moves away on Saturday, cooler air will follow, bringing the possibility of snow in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and icy conditions for much of the rest of the UK.
Southwesterly winds of 60 - 70mph inland and 80mph on the coast are possible in the early hours of the morning. This will create large waves in coastal areas, and coupled with high tides could bring significant coastal overtopping. People are advised to stay away from exposed coastal areas in the west and not try to view or take photographs of the weather.
Further winds of 50 - 60mph widely and 70mph on the north west coast are expected to continue through the day and into Sunday morning.
Probably the biggest problem parts of the country will face tomorrow is potential for more flooding. The Environment agency currently has 9 severe flood warnings (meaning danger to life), 157 flood warnings (meaning immediate action required) and 276 flood alerts (meaning be prepared) in force across the UK. This, for many, is potentially very serious. For the last few weeks the country has seen very little respite in the wet weather, the ground is saturated and rivers are already at dangerously high levels. The public are advised to keep a close eye on Environment Agency flood warnings throughout the weekend.
There is likely to be some severe disruption to travel and possible disruption to power supplies. There are already reports of some trees falling and the heavy rain is likely to cause some quite severe surface flooding on roads. The AA warn that it can take as little as an egg cup of water to destroy an engine, and in the last few weeks, thousands of cars have been lost to floods. We strongly advise that people do not take risks driving through flood water. Train services are also likely to be affected.
The storm has been dubbed Brigid because it will hit Ireland on the 1st of February, St Brigid’s Feast Day in Ireland.
We'll be keeping our eye on the storm throughout Saturday so visit our Facebook page, click the 'Like' button and then click the 'Follow' button. Updates will then appear in your Facebook news feed.