Six Warnings as Boelo Arrives, With Amber Wind From Tonight
Six weather warnings now cover the United Kingdom as Storm Boelo arrives, including two amber wind warnings that begin at nine tonight across mainland Scotland, the Western Isles, northern England, northern Wales and north-west Northern Ireland. Gusts could reach 80mph on exposed coasts. The warnings in force this morning are yellow.
The disruption has started well ahead of the amber period. Fourteen Caledonian MacBrayne sailings have been cancelled, along with Irish Sea crossings between Belfast and Liverpool, Belfast and Cairnryan, and Dublin and Holyhead. England has three flood warnings and fourteen alerts, with flooding expected at Scarborough and in Staffordshire; Scotland has warnings across ten areas including Aberdeenshire, Fife and the Lothians. Rail operators are closing lines rather than slowing them: the Ayr line goes from nine tonight, Oban and Mallaig from about ten, and three Highland routes from the start of service tomorrow. One operator is advising against all but essential travel across the north today and tomorrow, another against travelling north of Preston on Sunday. Supt Andy Barclay of Police Scotland asked drivers to “consider if your journey is really necessary”, noting that stopping distances “can be at least double on wet roads”. Storm Austen has not finished either: 5,774 properties in England and Wales were still without power at a quarter to ten this morning, most of them in the south-west. The clocks go back at two tomorrow morning.