As many as 68 areas of the UK could be hit with power cuts, travel disruption due to heavy wind storms on Monday, the Met Office has warned. The forecaster has issued an amber weather warning covering a 12-hour period in the UK starting at 10am on Monday, August 4, and a separate yellow weather warning covering an even greater area for a longer time, starting at 6am.
The Met Office said that both the amber warning, which covers 28 areas of the UK, all in Scotland, and the yellow weather warning, covering 68 areas of the UK including England and Wales, risk causing power cuts, as well as a “danger to life”, travel disruption, damage to property and the loss of mobile phone signal. Cities under the yellow weather warning include Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, York, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland and Glasgow as well as Bangor in Wales, while Glasgow and Edinburgh are impacted by a more serious amber weather warning.
The Met Office said in its yellow warning: “Storm Floris will bring a spell of unusually windy weather for the time of year across the northern half of the UK on Monday. The highest winds are expected across Scotland between late morning and early evening. In some areas high winds will be accompanied by heavy rain. Wind will then slowly start to ease from the west later.
“Across the warning area, many inland areas are likely to see gusts of 40 to 50 mph with 60 to 70 mph possible along exposed coasts and high ground, especially Scotland. During the height of the storm, winds over parts of Scotland will be even higher and this is covered by a separate amber warning.”
In its amber warning for Scotland, it added: “Storm Floris will bring unseasonably strong and disruptive winds to much of Scotland during Monday.
“Gusts of 50 to 70 mph are expected for many parts, and are likely to reach 80 to 90 mph on some exposed coasts, hills and bridges.”
It said to expect: “Some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs, could happen; Injuries and danger to life from flying debris are possible; Power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage; Injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties; Some roads and bridges may close; Road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected, with longer journey times and cancellations possible.”
The full list of 68 affected UK areas is:
Angus
Clackmannanshire
Dundee
Falkirk
Fife
Perth and Kinross
Stirling
Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
Moray
Na h-Eileanan Siar
Highland
Darlington
Durham
Gateshead
Hartlepool
Middlesbrough
Newcastle upon Tyne
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Redcar and Cleveland
South Tyneside
Stockton-on-Tees
Sunderland
Blackburn with Darwen
Blackpool
Cheshire West and Chester
Cumbria
Greater Manchester
Halton
Lancashire
Merseyside
Warrington
County Antrim
County Armagh
County Down
County Fermanagh
County Londonderry
County Tyrone
Orkney Islands
Shetland Islands
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian
Edinburgh
Midlothian Council
Scottish Borders
West Lothian
Argyll and Bute
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
East Renfrewshire
Glasgow
Inverclyde
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire
Renfrewshire
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire
West Dunbartonshire
Conwy
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Gwynedd
Isle of Anglesey
East Riding of Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
York