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Britain is bracing itself as Storm Atiyah is set to hit this weekend with powerful gales forecast and the Met Office issuing weather warnings.
Severe winds of up to 70-80mph are due to hit the UK, with western England and Wales due to take the brunt.
The Met Office has issued yellow “danger to life” weather warnings which are in place for western England and Wales for 18 hours from Sunday 3pm through to 9am on Monday.
Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge told The Independent : “Saturday starts off decent for most of the UK as it will be dry and bright. There will be just a little patchy rain across Scotland and we will see the rain moving across the rest of Scotland that day.
“It will be a little bit windy across the country on Saturday but this will be very short lived. It is not until we get into Sunday that the wind gets really bad.”
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A yellow warning has been issued from Blackpool in the North West of England down through western Wales and south towards Portsmouth.
The Met Office warned the area can expect large waves, power cuts, travel disruption and damage to temporary structures.
Inland, the UK can expect gusts of between 50-60mph and they could even reach up to 70mph around some coasts.
Storm Atiya is the first named storm of the season and follows a month of heavy rain and flooding across the UK in November.
It was named by forecasters in Ireland as they are expected to receive the brunt of it and they could expect gales of 80mph.
But the Met warned there could be more weather warnings as the wind is expected to move eastwards.
Mr Partridge added: “The wind should ease off on Monday morning, but the strong winds will move to the east.
“There are currently no warnings in place, but the Environmental Agency is monitoring the situation closely.”
Just days later, Britain could also face heavy rain, strong winds and even snow as people take to the polls on Thursday .
Wind warnings have been issued for the whole of the Republic of Ireland.
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