Following the battering we’ve just received in the past 24 hours from Storm Dudley, the Met Office has warned that Storm Eunice is set to roll in overnight, bringing powerful 100mph winds along with it.
Putting in place a new ‘Yellow’ warning ahead of the storm, the Met Office warns that much of Scotland and the North of England will face extreme weather this Friday 17th February, with experts predicting it could be the worst storm the country has faced in 30 years.
The warning states that disruption to daily life will be caused as a result of ‘blizzard’-like conditions including heavy snow and strong winds, with transport delays expected and a chance that some rural communities could be cut off. It’s also expected that some communities will face power cuts as a result of the severe weather conditions.
Speaking to The Mirror, a Met Office forecaster said: “With the wind gusts we are forecasting at the moment, we’ve only seen a handful of storms in the past 30 years that have brought similar gusts. It’s got the potential to be up there as quite a notable storm.
“Winds are likely to be 60 to 70mph inland across the south of the UK. It’s quite unusual, we don’t see gusts that high over such a wide area in the south. The Burns Day Storm brought similar gusts.”
Forecasters are continuing to monitor the storm, however, the UK could be faced with a rare ‘red warning’ as more insights come in. The last storm of this predicted magnitude – the Burns Day Storm of 1990 – caused 47 deaths and significant damage.