Storm Debi live as Met Office issues UK weather warning and …

Storm to sweep across Ireland and into UK

Weather warnings have been issued for large parts of the UK, as the storm is forecast to sweep across Ireland before reaching northern England and parts of Wales on Monday, with the potential for 80mph gusts in some areas.

A yellow warning for wind, the lowest level of alert, will be in place from 4am until 6pm for areas including Bangor and St Davids in Wales and Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool in England. Aberdeenshire in Scotland will have a yellow warning for rain from 10am until 9pm.

Parts of north-east Scotland likely to see heavy rain were also battered by Storm Babet last month, including Brechin in Angus, where hundreds of homes had to be evacuated after the river South Esk breached its banks.

Jonathan Vautrey, meteorologist for the Met Office, urged people to “take care before you travel” as morning rush hour is expected to be affected.

He said: “There will be some heavy rainfall, the potential for flying debris, the potential for disruption to travel and infrastructure in places.”

Meanwhile, much of the Republic of Ireland is covered by a red wind warning – the highest level of alert – which came into place in the early hours and will last until 9am, with an orange warning set to carry on until 10am in parts. A separate overnight red warning for east Galway and south Roscommon was extended until 7am.

A yellow warning applies to every county in Ireland from midnight until 3pm on Monday.

Ireland’s National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) advised schools and pre-schools in several counties to remain closed until 10am on Monday.