UK set to be battered by tail end of Katia

DAMAGING winds will hit northern parts of the UK tomorrow as the remnants of Hurricane Katia reach British shores, forecasters have warned.

Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cumbria could see trees brought down as gusts of up to 80mph sweep across the region.

The high winds will be accompanied by heavy rain and the Environment Agency has issued low-risk flood warnings for areas of north-west England and Wales.

Paul Mott, forecaster for Meteogroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: “The strongest gusts are going to be over Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cumbria.

“There will be gusts up to 60 or 70mph, locally up to 80mph, over west and north-west Scotland. It is possible that it will be enough to bring down trees in Scotland and Northern Ireland, especially as they are still in full leaf.”

The UK sees a storm of this strength around once per year, and the remnants of a hurricane reach Britain once every few years, he said.

Mott added: “It is unusually early to be getting a storm of this strength. You would normally expect it later in the autumn.”

The high winds and rain will start to ease off in the first half of this week.

“It will be over pretty quickly,” Mott said. “The worst of the wind will be through Monday afternoon and evening, and then the winds should start to ease through Monday night. Tuesday and Wednesday will still be windy for parts of the UK, but nowhere near as windy as Monday.”

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for tomorrow, warning people in Northern Ireland, central and south-west Scotland and the Highlands to be prepared.

The warning, classed as an amber alert, says: “The remains of Hurricane Katia are expected to come across the UK on Monday, bringing a spell of very windy weather. There remains some uncertainty about its track and intensity, though with increasing indications that Scotland and Northern Ireland are most likely to bear the brunt.”

It appears that unusually low-altitude and strengthening jet stream winds between North Carolina and New York are providing Katia with an oceanic conveyor belt, speeding its passage towards Ireland and the UK and allowing it to maintain an unusual intensity.

l A large oceanographic data buoy from Newfoundland has been found off the coast of Shetland after it went missing during Hurricane Igor earlier this month. The yellow one-tonne buoy floated into the 500-metre exclusion zone around the Clair Platform after apparently travelling more than 2,000 miles from off the coast of Canada.