Storm Floris is just days away from hitting the shores of the UK, with weather warnings in place for the freak event, which is extremely rare during this time of year. As pressure in the system builds through the jet stream winds, the winds will skyrocket over the Atlantic to up to 165mph.
Luckily for us in the UK, the winds will calm when they move over the shores, but will still bring gale-force winds up to 85mph across parts of the country. With such dramatic conditions on the cards, the Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for both Monday, August 4, and Tuesday, August 5, with northern parts of the UK, particularly Scotland, expected to get the worst battering.
The first named storm since January, Floris, will hit Britain on Monday at 5am. The first areas to be hit with winds and sweeping rain will be the west coast of Scotland, particularly around Ayrshire and Galloway and north west England around Blackpool and the Lake District.
Moving south, the rain will also begin moving in over North Wales, with places like Anglesey due to be hit with rain from the early morning.
The Met Office’s Aidan McGivern said: “The winds at this stage are not too concerning, this is early Monday, as the rain moves in, it becomes increasingly heavy through Monday morning with the wettest weather in Scotland, northern England and Wales and not a great deal further south.
“This swathe of very strong winds arrives after the more persistent rain in the late afternoon.”
Due to a circling effect from the winds over northern Scotland, the strongest winds will be pulled from the west to the east of the country on Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
These winds are expected to be up to 85mph, which are considered “hurricane-force”, while some heavy rain also continues.
Speaking just about the winds, Aidan added: “By the time the evening starts, we’ve got widely 50-60mph wind gusts across Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and parts of England.”
The Met Office has also issued some safety advice. With disruption to power supplies and transport, they very likely listed three crucial items to gather ahead of the storm to keep yourself safe: torches, batteries, and a mobile phone power bank.
They added: “People cope better with power cuts when they have prepared for them in advance. It’s easy to do; consider gathering torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack, and other essential items.”