Weather warning live: Storm Ciarán to bring flooding and strong winds to UK

The Met Office has named the third storm of the season as it’s set to bring 90mph winds to the UK from Thursday.

The forecaster said Storm Ciarán is set to bring “strong winds and heavy rain” as it sweeps across the UK next week.

It comes after areas across Scotland and north-east England were battered with the worst of Storm Babet, which caused serious damage and several deaths when it hit last week.

Met office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Chris Almond, said: “Heavy and persistent rain will fall onto already saturated ground bringing a risk of further impacts such as flooding in areas that are already struggling to clean up from the heavy rainfall we have seen over the last week or so.”

The Environment agency currently has a staggering 71 flood warnings in place across England and a further 172 flood alerts. Meanwhile in Scotland, 18 flood warnings and 11 flood alerts are currently in place.

Here are the latest pictures of the weather from Sunday as the UK prepares for the arrival of Storm Ciarán.

The Met Office has issued a new weather warning for Northern Ireland, ahead of Storm Ciarán’s arrival on Thursday.

The yellow weather warning for heavy showers will come into place at 4pm on Monday and remain until Tuesday at 3pm.

As the week ahead is set to bring further rain to the UK, Britons are to expect more heavy flooding.

Met office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Chris Almond, said: “Heavy and persistent rain will fall onto already saturated ground bringing a risk of further impacts such as flooding in areas that are already struggling to clean up from the heavy rainfall we have seen over the last week or so.”

The Environment agency currently has a staggering 71 flood warnings in place across England and a further 172 flood alerts. In Scotland 18 flood warnings and 11 flood alerts are currently in place while in Wales there are six warnings and 17 alerts.

For the 2023/24 season, the way the Met Office and Irish service Met Éireann names storms has changed.

Previously, names were drawn from a shortlist of favourites chosen by the public.

But now, the storms will be named after those working to protect people from severe weather around the UK.

Along with Met Eireann in Ireland and KNMI, the Dutch weather service, meteorologists name storms when they are expected to have a “medium” or “high” impact on people in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands.

This helps communicate the seriousness of a storm to the public and helps people recognise what steps to take, the Met Office said.

The three organisations work together to compile the list of names before the following season, which runs from September to August.

Here is the Met Office’s advice on what to do in advance to prepare for a storm:

• Secure loose objects such as ladders, garden furniture or anything else that could be blown into windows and other glazing and break them
• Close and securely fasten doors and windows, particularly those on the windward side of the house, and especially large doors such as those on garages
• Park vehicles in a garage, if available; otherwise keep them clear of buildings, trees, walls and fences
• Close and secure loft trapdoors with bolts, particularly if roof pitch is less than 30°
• If the house is fitted with storm shutters over the windows then ensure that these are closed and fastened
• If chimney stacks are tall and in poor condition, move beds away from areas directly below them

The Met Office has issued fresh weather warnings due to begin on Wednesday evening as the UK braces itself for Storm Ciarán.

The warnings for wind and rain are due to affect the entirety of southern England, London, south Wales and the West Midlands.

The yellow warning for rain is set to be in effect from 6pm on Wednesday to midnight on Thursday, while the yellow warning for wind will come into place at midnight on Wednesday and remain in place until 6pm on Thursday morning.

It’s unclear where exactly Storm Ciarán will hit, but the Met Office say southern England and Wales will primarily be affected.

The forecasters added that the coming week will continue to bring unsettling weather for “much of the UK”.

A number of Severe Weather Warnings for rain are also expected to be issued for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the storm officially arrives on Thursday.

Storm Ciarán is set to batter the UK when it arrives on Britain’s shores on Thursday.

Met office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Chris Almond, said “Winds associated with Storm Ciarán are likely to gust to 80mph along the south coast of England, with a small risk of somewhere exposed seeing 90mph, and winds could even gust up to 50 or 60 mph further inland.

“This deep low-pressure system will also bring heavy rain to much of the UK, but the heaviest rain is expected in southern and western areas with 20 to 25mm quite widely across the region but up to 40 to 60mm potentially over higher ground.”

For context, the entire UK usually averages 16 days of rain or snow in November, totalling 123 millimetres.