Winds of up to 100mph from Storm Eunice could pound coastal parts of west Wales and southwest England on Friday with forecasters warning of power cuts, large waves and significant travel disruption.
“Friday is not a day to venture out,” said the BBC Wales weather presenter Sabrina Lee who added there was potential for rare red weather warnings to be issued.
Storm Eunice will make Friday a treacherous day for most of the UK. The storm is hot on the heels of Storm Dudley which arrived on Wednesday afternoon with strong winds battering Northern Ireland, southern Scotland and northern England.
As of 5pm, Capel Curig in Wales had experienced gusts of up to 81mph, with Emley Moore in Yorkshire seeing 74mph winds, while Drumalbin in Scotland was hit by 71mph gales.
Eunice, the Met Office said, “could see even more dangerous weather conditions, with extremely strong winds expected for the southern half of the UK, especially in exposed coastal areas in the south and west.”
Chief meteorologist Frank Saunders said an active jet stream was helping to drive the low pressure systems across the UK.
“Significant disruption is possible from both Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice with strong winds one of the main themes of the current forecast,” he said.
“Storm Eunice is expected to track eastwards from early on Friday, bringing the most significant winds to the central and southern areas of the UK, with some gusts possible in excess of 95mph in exposed coastal areas.”
An amber, previously yellow, weather warning for Friday has been issued covering Wales, southern England and the Midlands.
A yellow warning of wind and heavy snow as a result of Eunice on Friday was in place for northern England, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland. About 5cm of snow is predicted at low levels and up to 30cm above 250m.
East Midlands Railway and London North Eastern Railway have warned customers to expect disruption to services in the coming days, with LNER asking passengers planning to travel on Friday to move their journey because of the weather.
Rod Dennis, spokesperson for RAC Breakdown, said: “Drivers should take the fact the Met Office has upweighted its warnings from yellow to amber on Friday very seriously. Storm Eunice will make road conditions hazardous, so we strongly urge drivers not to risk it and instead consider delaying their journeys until the storm passes.”
Quite how bad the predicted storms will be remains to be seen. John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, said the coming days would be “very challenging” and urged everyone to plan their journeys in advance, exercise caution on the roads, and follow the latest travel advice.
ScotRail said as a safety precaution the vast majority of services would be wound down by 4pm on Wednesday, when the worst of Storm Dudley was expected.
Avanti West Coast urged passengers travelling north of Preston to do so before 4pm and said ticket restrictions would be removed. Wednesday tickets could be used on Thursday, it said.
The Dudley amber weather warning included “injuries and danger to life” from large waves and beach material being thrown on to coastal roads and seafronts.
Power firms said they were prepared after storms Arwen, Malik and Corrie caused widespread power cuts.
Northern Powergrid said there was a relatively high likelihood of disruption to power supplies. Paul Glendinning, the director of policy and markets, said the company had ensured resources were in place to respond to the storms.
“Our network control engineers have capability to restore power supplies remotely, switching electricity through alternative routes on our network wherever possible to get customers back on supply,” he said.
“In parallel our frontline workforce will be deployed to carry out local switching and repairs to restore power as safely and quickly as the conditions allow.”
Northumberland fire and rescue service urged people to be prepared. That included having batteries for torches and radios and some food that did not need cooking, charging phones and checking in on elderly and disabled neighbours.
The chief fire officer, Paul Hedley, advised residents not to go out in the storms unless it was absolutely necessary.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution asked people to stay well back from stormy seas and cliff edges.
If there was any light relief in the storm warnings it was in the names. David Baddiel tweeted: “I’m not convinced that a storm called Dudley, or indeed one called Eunice, presage a sense of devastation. I think they presage a sense that these storms might offer you a nice cup of tea.”
