The United Kingdom is getting ready for a blustery weekend when storm Kathleen barrels towards the country, bringing heavy rain and strong winds of up to 70mph.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain starting from Friday at 2am until 9am. The heaviest rain is expected across central Scotland, with up to 3 inches possible in some areas. The UK expects around 15-25mm of rain, with some areas seeing up to 35mm overnight.
Meteorologist Greg Dewhurst warns, “We have got heavy rain pushing north and east across the country through (Thursday night) and into (Friday) morning.”
“So it will start to clear (Friday) morning but leaves a legacy of showers, and then perhaps some longer spells of rain as we go through the day across the north of the UK.”
While there will be rain throughout the day, some southeastern areas might see sunny spells with temperatures reaching 18°C (64°F).
A yellow warning for snow is also in place on Friday from the early hours through to 9am. This covers central, Tayside & Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian Borders, Grampian, Highlands & Eilean Siar, and Strathclyde. Snowfall is expected over higher ground, with accumulations of 10cm or more in places above 300 metres.
The Met Office has also issued a yellow weather warning for wind on Saturday from 8am to 10pm. The weather warning covers western areas, including parts of Scotland and Wales, and the north-west and south-west of England.
Winds could reach speeds of between 60-70mph around western coastal areas, with inland areas experiencing gusts of 40-50mph.
“Winds pick up further through Friday evening, overnight into Saturday, where as we start Saturday morning we’ll see widely across the country gusts of 30-40mph,” Dewhurst said.
“In western parts of the UK, inland, we could see gusts of 40 to 50mph and then around the western coast of the UK we could see gusts of sort of 60-70mph.”
Storm Kathleen, named by the Irish Meteorological Service Met Eireann, is the 11th named storm in eight months. This is only the second time a storm with the letter "K" has hit the UK in a single season.
