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Wales Online
National
Cathy Owen

Storm Eunice: Met Office warnings could be upgraded to amber as 'explosive' storm heads towards Wales

Weather warnings for Wales could be upgraded as Storm Eunice is set to hit the country at the end of the week, and it could bring "significant snow" with it.

The Met Office has named two storms - Dudley and Eunice - that will hit the UK within days of each other, but the biggest concern is the second one that will hit on Friday.

The whole of Wales is covered by a yellow weather warning for winds of up to 80mph on Friday. You can read more details here.

A yellow weather warning for Storm Dudley on Thursday has also been changed to include a larger area of Wales.

The warning area for Storm Dudley now covers a larger part of Wales (Met Office)

Wales forecaster Derek Brockway says: "Explosive cyclogenesis will take place later this week. A small low will form over the mid-Atlantic on Thursday and then deepen rapidly. Named Storm Eunice, it will impact the UK on Friday.

"A yellow warning is in force but Amber warnings are likely nearer the time."

BBC forecaster Simon King said the concern was that Eunice will hit during the day.

He said: "Dudley will bring big impacts but Eunice looks like it could have greater impacts over a larger populated area.

"Still some days off so don't want to give finer details yet as likely to change but...really take notice of this one One thing to point out is that Dudley's strongest winds will occur when most of us are in bed.

"The strongest winds with Eunice will be in daylight on Friday when more of us are probably out and about."

The Met Office's Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Rudman says the main impact of Eunice will be on Friday, and says there could be significant snow with it.

North Wales is a particular area of concern because it is within the warning area for both Dudley and Eunice.

He said: "Eunice has yet to develop so it's a storm system which doesn't exist at the moment. It will develop out to the southwest over the Atlantic through Thursday and into Friday and it'll impact the UK overnight Thursday into Friday with the main impacts being on Friday.

"This system is a bit further south. We're not sure exactly where it's going to hit us, but it's likely to track over the southern half of the UK and bring strong winds in particular to the southwest and coastal parts, but also across the southeast, and possibly through the Midlands. as well.

"The risk with Eunice is that it does bring in some cold air with it. So on the northern portion of this storm, we could see some significant snowfall events in the areas which might have been affected by the strong winds from Dudley previously so we could see some disruption due to snowfall there and with some strong winds associated with that we could see some very unpleasant conditions."

He was also asked when more settled weather will return, and replied: "It will be much more settled on Saturday. The bad news is that that's probably just a brief respite before more wintry weather continues after that."

The yellow weather warning for Thursday in Wales currently says: "After a windy day, westerly winds are expected to increase further later on Wednesday afternoon and evening across southern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, then parts of Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia.

"There is still some uncertainty in the timing and location of the strongest winds but there is the potential for inland wind gusts of 60-70 mph in places. Gusts of 80-90 mph are possible around exposed coasts of southwest Scotland for a brief time. The worst of the winds will ease through Thursday morning, though remaining generally windy during the day."

The areas in Wales covered are:

  • Ceredigion
  • Conwy
  • Denbighshire
  • Flintshire
  • Gwynedd
  • Isle of Anglesey
  • Powys
  • Wrexham.

The yellow weather warning for Friday in Wales currently says: "Extremely strong winds may develop over southwest England early on Friday, before spreading north and east during the morning.

"It is not yet clear where within the warning area the strongest winds will be but gusts of 60-70 mph are possible over a reasonably large area with a small chance of a brief period of gusts reaching 80 mph even inland.

"Coastal winds are likely to be the strongest. In addition to the wind, there is the potential for a period of snow and perhaps blizzard conditions, most likely over northern England, parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and north Wales. However, this is very dependant on the track of the weather system and most places will see heavy rain instead."

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