Parts of Britain should prepare to batten down the hatches as the tail end of Hurricane Ophelia could bring winds of up to 70mph from Monday following a mild weekend.
The weather system will drag in warm air from continental Europe that will help temperatures in south-east England climb to as high as 25C (77F).
But yellow warnings are in place in Northern Ireland and along the entire west coast of Britain for winds with the potential to cause power cuts, damage buildings, delay transport services and disrupt mobile phone coverage, the Met Office said.
“It is possible that some coastal routes, seafronts and coastal communities will be affected by spray and/or large waves,” the forecasting agency said. “There is also a small chance that injuries could occur from beach material being thrown on to seafronts.”
Monday is the 30th anniversary of the Great Storm, the most destructive weather to hit the UK since 1703. It left 18 people dead and caused damage worth about £1bn.
While Ophelia’s force will dissipate from that of a tropical storm to an area of more common low pressure, the extra-tropical transition in which this takes place will occur close to Ireland and the UK, meaning it will still be “quite a potent feature”, according to Steven Keates, a Met Office meteorologist.
We're currently expecting ex-hurricane #Ophelia to track just to the west of the UK next Monday. Stay #weatheraware for the latest details pic.twitter.com/FKI1pL9trT
— Met Office (@metoffice) October 12, 2017
“For the UK we’re going to initially get a sort of glancing blow,” he said. “But for western peripheries of England and Wales – basically areas running up towards the Irish Sea – there’s certainly a risk of gales developing through the course of Monday, and some quite big waves coming to the coast of south Wales and south-west England as well.
“And then through Monday, the centre of this looks as though it’s going to track up the western side of Ireland towards western Scotland by midnight on Tuesday, so the strongest winds travelling further north, too.
“It looks like the strongest winds across UK land areas, excluding the Irish Republic, will be across Northern Ireland later on Monday evening, overnight to Tuesday, and then probably for a good part of Scotland and maybe the far north of England through the course of Tuesday, where again gusts of wind of around 50 and 70mph are quite possible.”
As Ophelia drifts north it will drag warm air into other parts of the country, particularly the south-east, where temperatures will reach the low-20s over the weekend before rising to 24-25C.
Keates said it was difficult to attribute the turbulent weather to the effects of climate change. “It’s quite unusual but I don’t think there’s any fundamental, direct link to a changing climate on one particular storm,” he said. “If this was to start happening every year, you might have to start asking questions, but I think this has happened before and, whilst it’s unusual, it’s not unheard of.”
