Storm Kathleen named and weather warnings issued

The UK forecast up to and including the weekend presents a Smorgasbord of weather types with rain, transient snow, unseasonably strong winds and temperatures above 20°C all featuring for some.  

The Met Office has issued three yellow weather warnings over the next two days and Met Éireann has named an area of low-pressure Storm Kathleen, which will bring wind and rain impacts on Saturday.

Snow warning for Scotland 

Overnight a band of heavy rain will move northwards across the UK bringing a temporary snow risk for parts of Scotland.  

Met Office Chief Meteorologist Matthew Lehnert said: “Snow is expected to develop particularly over higher ground, during the early hours of Friday before easing during the morning. Accumulating snow is expected to mainly occur above around 200 metres, with a chance of temporary accumulations below this where precipitation becomes temporarily heavy.  

“Two to five centimetres of snow is expected fairly widely above 250 metres, with a chance that a few places within the warning area at lower levels could see a few centimetres settle. Accumulations of 10 cm or more are expected to be reserved for areas above 300 metres.” 

A yellow warning for snow has been issued from 3am on Friday until 9am. Snow is likely to cause some travel disruption particularly on higher routes, with longer journey times by road, bus and train services expected. 

Rain warning for Scotland 

Aside from the snow risk, heavy rain is expected to develop across lower elevations of the Central Belt on Thursday night before clearing on Friday morning and a yellow rain warning is in place from 2am until 9am. Many areas are likely to see 15-25 mm of rain, much of this falling in around six hours with a few locations seeing up to 35 mm overnight. 

Ashleigh Robson is head of transport resilience at Transport Scotland and said:   

“The forecast weather conditions could impact driving in the areas covered by the yellow warning, so our advice to motorists is to plan your journey, leave extra time if needed and drive to the conditions. 

“The Traffic Scotland website gives people access to the latest information on the trunk road network and the Traffic Scotland X page is also updated regularly so you can check if your route is available before setting off. 

“There may also be disruption on other modes of transport, so please check with your operator before setting off if you’re planning to travel by rail, ferry or air.” 

Wind warnings and Storm Kathleen

On Saturday a deep area of low pressure – now named as Storm Kathleen and the 11th named storm of this storm season - will move towards the UK and Ireland from the southwest bringing unseasonably strong winds to Ireland and western parts of the UK.

A yellow warning is in place from 8am until 10pm on Saturday for parts of western Britain and Northern Ireland.  

Deputy Chief Meteorologist Christoph Almond said: “Gusts of 50 mph are expected quite widely on Saturday, while some exposed spots, particularly on the coast, will see 60 to 70 mph gusts with large waves also likely.” 

Warm in many places too 

As this area of low pressure moves north-eastwards, it will be drawing up unseasonably warm air from Iberia for a time. This warm air will see temperatures rise across the UK, causing some areas to see values above 20°C for the first time this year. The locations likely to see the highest temperatures will be in parts of East Anglia and Southeast England where 21°C or 22°C is not out of the question briefly on Saturday. 

Into next week  

Beyond the weekend the confidence in the forecast isn’t as high, but there is a robust signal for further rain next week in the north, but a hint of more settled conditions in the south of England at times, especially in the second half of next week with temperatures a little above average. 

Our Weekend Outlook video will be live on the Met Office YouTube channel later today. 

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