Storm Ciara will arrive this weekend bringing potentially damaging winds and dangerous waves. Alex Deakin looks at the cause of this system and the possible impacts across the country.
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00:00This morning here at the Met Office we've named Storm Kira arriving at the
00:04weekend a deep area of low pressure bringing potentially damaging gusts of
00:08wind maybe as high as 80 miles an hour and we're also concerned about some very
00:12large and dangerous waves that could accompany this storm. Now the storm
00:17system arriving at the weekend couldn't be in greater contrast to what we've got
00:20at the moment across the UK a big area of high pressure and light winds meaning
00:25fog and frost but things are changing out in the Atlantic and it's more
00:29importantly even further away across North America exceptionally cold air is
00:34driving south from northern Canada and hitting relatively warm air down across
00:39the southeast of the US and it's that contrast in temperatures which is
00:43driving the jet stream that fast-moving ribbon of air high up in the atmosphere
00:48is being invigorated by that temperature contrast across the US and this
00:53energized jet stream then powers across the Atlantic during Friday and into
00:58Saturday taking this area of low pressure with it. Now it's really as we
01:02go into Friday and Saturday that's the interaction with that low pressure
01:06system and the jet stream could really spin it up and really give this low
01:10pressure system a lot of extra vigor and turn it into potentially quite a nasty
01:15storm it's this low which is Storm Kira. As I said arriving at the weekend
01:20bringing quite widely gusts of 50 to 60 miles an hour now there's a lot to
01:24happen between now and then this is four or five days away and the exact
01:28interaction with that powerful jet will play a crucial role and that's why
01:32there's some uncertainty and that uncertainty is reflected in the size of
01:35our weather warning currently covering the whole of the UK because subtle shift
01:40in that low or the jet stream will make all the difference to where exactly we
01:44see the strongest winds but we are looking as I said at winds potentially
01:48gusting in some spots as high as 80 miles an hour that's likely to bring
01:52some structural damage and certainly some travel disruption closures to
01:55bridges and also ferry disruption there's also the likelihood of some
02:00power issues and as I said very large waves meaning the risk of coastal
02:06flooding there is that uncertainty and over the next few days we will be
02:09fine-tuning these weather warnings so make sure you stay weather aware and
02:14stay up to date with the latest from the Met Office