This is a Met Office UK Weather update for Storm Darragh 06/12/2024. Bringing you this weather forecast is Aidan McGivern.
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00:00Hi there. It is half past three on Friday the 6th of December at the time of recording.
00:07And as I speak, Storm Dara is approaching, expected to hit the UK overnight and continue to bring significant impacts across the country due to wind, rain and even some snow throughout Saturday and into Sunday.
00:21Lots of weather warnings in force and the best advice is to stay up to date with the weather warnings and travel plans as well if you've got any through the weekend
00:29because this is going to be a very dangerous storm. In fact, in some parts of the south and southwest, it could be the most dangerous storm since at least Storm Eunice back in February 2022.
00:42So in this video, I want to give an overview of what we can expect from the weather and the impacts and how you can stay safe from Storm Dara.
00:50Now, at the time of recording, as I mentioned, Storm Dara is rapidly approaching.
00:54It's been a relatively calm day across the UK, having seen a different area of low pressure bring wet and windy weather through the UK last night.
01:02That's now clearing into the continent and here's Storm Dara.
01:06Now, over the next few hours, it moves into the UK and crosses the country effectively through midpoint of the country overnight and moves into the North Sea during Saturday morning.
01:21Meanwhile, not only is Storm Dara a deep area of low pressure, but there's this huge area of high pressure to the west of the UK and that's going to build as we go into Saturday.
01:33And as that pressure rises and bulges in across the UK from the west, the isobars will tighten and we're going to see the strongest winds arrive from the northwest during Saturday morning.
01:48And so it's western parts of the UK that are at greatest risk from the strongest winds from this storm.
01:54That's why there are amber and red warnings in force for some western parts of the country.
01:59More on that in just a moment.
02:01Let's take a look at how the weather is expected to progress overnight and into the start of Saturday.
02:07So this is two o'clock Friday.
02:09Already, the rain has arrived into Northern Ireland, parts of Western Scotland, Wales and the southwest.
02:16But over the next few hours, the heavy rain will sweep across the whole of the country.
02:20It's going to bump into cold air across central Scotland and so some significant snow is expected above 200-300 metres north of the central belt.
02:28And the rain will be heavy and prolonged elsewhere as it moves through.
02:33It does move through the initial band of rain during the evening for many parts before another spell of wet weather arrives in on the back edge of that low into the west of the UK.
02:45In between, as the central part of the low, effectively the eye of the storm, moves over Northern Ireland into the Irish Sea and then Northern England,
02:57we can expect a lull in the winds for a time during the late evening and early hours period depending on where you are.
03:05Don't be fooled by that lull.
03:07The strongest winds are going to arrive after the lull in the winds as the winds switch to northwesterlies and this next swathe of very wet weather moves in.
03:18So, for example, if you're in Northern Ireland or northwest England, you might be going to bed thinking, oh, the winds are dropping out now, the worst of the rain has gone through.
03:27Don't be fooled.
03:28The even stronger winds are expected to arrive after that during the early hours of Saturday and the peak winds across western parts of the UK will be throughout Saturday morning,
03:39but they're going to stay very strong throughout the day.
03:42More on the wind in just a moment, but as you can see, we're waking up.
03:46This is 6am on Saturday.
03:48Many of us are waking up to some very wild weather out there.
03:51Increasingly strong winds coming in from the northwest across western areas and these spells of heavy rain and showers moving into Scotland, Northern Ireland, western England and Wales.
04:03The bright colours here indicating some very heavy rain across Wales in particular as we wake up on Saturday.
04:09And that rain is simply going to continue throughout Saturday.
04:13You can see these spells of wet weather replaced eventually by showers, but it's going to be particularly persistent across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, western England and Wales.
04:22Yellow warnings in force for rain and a smaller area where we've got an amber warning for south and mid Wales because of the risk of 80 to 90 millimetres of rain falling on top of areas that were so badly affected by Storm Burt just a couple of weeks ago.
04:39This is Saturday evening and you can see by the wind arrows the winds are remaining very strong and so it's going to stay very windy throughout the day.
04:49Let's take a look at the wind gusts in a bit more detail.
04:53And first of all I just want to highlight the lull in the winds and what we can expect after that lull.
05:00We're just going to pick somewhere there on the north coast of Northern Ireland.
05:04And what you can see is that the winds are picking up at the moment.
05:07These are the wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour or so during the evening.
05:11Then they're dropping out to 10 miles an hour around midnight.
05:14You can see this steep drop. That's as the centre point of the low, the eye of the storm passes through.
05:19But then look at that jump up to 64 miles an hour for this particular location by 6am.
05:26So in just a matter of hours, and this is overnight by the way, when many people will be tucked up in bed,
05:34this increase, sharp increase in the wind speeds during the early hours.
05:39So don't be fooled by this lull in the winds later on in the evening.
05:45If you're in Northern Ireland, parts of North West England for example, this is Cumbria.
05:4918 miles an hour quickly going up to the 50s.
05:52North Wales as well. Not so much of a lull because the eye of the storm doesn't go through.
05:57But look at the values we're getting up to for parts of West Wales.
06:0175 miles an hour by Saturday morning and staying very strong throughout the day.
06:07So best advice because those winds are coming through and strengthening so much overnight
06:13is to prepare your property if you can before heading to bed.
06:18So tie down any loose furniture, trampolines, Christmas decorations, all that sort of thing
06:23because there's a very real risk with these kinds of wind gusts of flying debris and structural damage.
06:28Let's take a look on a map at what this looks like.
06:32And this is as the winds pick up.
06:37First of all, through the evening, some very strong winds coming in here.
06:41Anything coloured up is 50 miles an hour or more in terms of wind gusts.
06:46But for parts of Western Ireland there, we've got wind gusts of 80 or more miles an hour.
06:50And then those very strong winds arrive across Northern Ireland by shortly after midnight
06:57and then into parts of Wales and the southwest as well as Western Scotland shortly after that.
07:04And if we just fast forward it slightly to 4 a.m.
07:10and you can see this is the time in which there's a red warning in force for western and south parts of Wales.
07:17And you can see that there are wind gusts widely of 50, 60 miles an hour for Northern Ireland, Western Scotland, Wales, the south and southwest.
07:25But around some of these coasts of South Wales, North Devon, North Somerset, West Wales,
07:31the risk of 70, 80 or even 90 miles an hour.
07:35And so the strongest the winds reaching us during the early hours of Saturday.
07:40But then throughout Saturday, those winds are staying strong and they continue to come from the northwest.
07:47That's a relatively unusual direction for such strong winds and that could exacerbate the impacts.
07:54So just to summarise, we've got numerous warnings in force.
07:59These are the rain and snow warnings.
08:02There is a snow warning for central parts of Scotland with the risk of 5 centimetres of snow accumulating above 200 to 300 metres.
08:09And so routes such as the A9 could be affected throughout Saturday.
08:13The snow arrives overnight and then continues throughout the day.
08:1720 centimetres of snow above 400 metres.
08:20All of that accompanied by strong winds.
08:22But we've also got this yellow warning for rain, south and east Scotland, Northern Ireland, much of Wales.
08:27Risk of 30 millimetres of rain widely, 60 millimetres in some places.
08:31That combined with strong winds, of course, could cause some travel disruption and localised flooding.
08:37But we're particularly concerned about south and mid Wales where there's an amber warning because of the risk of 80 to 90 millimetres of rain from now until the end of the weekend.
08:47And that could cause some significant flooding and disruption because, of course, it comes so soon after the impacts from Storm Burt.
08:55Meanwhile, here's a summary of the wind warnings.
08:59Widely across much of the UK, away from central and northern Scotland, there's a yellow warning for wind.
09:0550 mile per hour wind gusts even inland, risk of more than 60 miles an hour in places.
09:10But across Northern Ireland, southwest Scotland, much of northwest England, parts of Wales and the southwest, there's an amber warning.
09:16And that's where there's the risk of 70, 80 mile per hour wind gusts, particularly for exposed locations.
09:21The red warning area there is across west and south Wales into north Devon and north Somerset.
09:27And that's where there's the risk of 90 mile per hour wind gusts or even higher than that, between 3 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturday.
09:35So the advice is, particularly if you are in the amber or red warning areas, to stay up to date with transport plans, travel plans and stay up to date with Met Office forecasts and warnings.
09:49If you've got travel plans, particularly through Saturday, the advice is to postpone them. It's simply not worth the risk.
09:57These are dangerous wind speeds and they are worth taking very seriously.
10:02Additionally, any outdoor activities should be cancelled and postponed and make sure any loose furniture or outdoor decorations are secured.
10:14Because these kinds of winds will lead to flying debris and trees coming down and dangerous conditions, particularly around coastal areas.
10:21It's not worth heading out to the coast and taking a look at the storm because there'll be big waves.
10:27I think around 40 percent of people who drown in the sea never intended to enter the water.
10:31And it's in situations like this where you get very large and unpredictable waves where that risk is greatest.
10:38So yeah, worth staying up to date with all the latest information from the Met Office and any other local authorities.
10:45Worth postponing travel plans, staying safe, staying indoors basically.
10:50And by Sunday and into Monday, higher pressure builds so it will all be through.
10:55It's simply not worth heading out in this kind of weather and taking the risk.
10:59Stay safe. Bye bye.