Storm Kathleen to hit Britain this weekend as 'danger to life' warning issued for 70mph winds and torrential rain

4 April 2024, 13:01 | Updated: 4 April 2024, 13:07

Storm Kathleen is set to hit Britain this weekend as weather warnings are in place for 70mph winds and torrential rain.

The storm was named after the Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for wind, rain and snow across the west coast of England and Scotland.

Gusts of up to 70mph are expected in exposed areas of the coast on Saturday - with 50mph winds expected more widely.

Travel disruption is expected across road, rail, air and ferry services and coastal areas can expect to see large waves, causing "danger to life".

Meanwhile, snow and rain will hit much of central Scotland in the early hours of Friday morning, with a yellow warning in place until 9am.

As of Thursday morning, 12 flood warnings were issued and 102 flood alerts.

It marks only the second time a UK named storm has reached the letter K, following Storm Katie 2016.

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Looking ahead at the next 10 days, Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: "There will be some wet weather around, could be quite heavy at times, but there are also some signs of something a little bit drier coming up later on.

"For the time being though, low pressure in control as we go through the next few days, various areas of low pressure pushing their way across, bringing spells of wet weather and some blustery conditions too.

"As we head towards Friday though, we have an area of low pressure pushing towards us and this feature has actually been named Storm Olivia by the Portuguese met service. It is going to bring some blustery, showery weather across parts of the UK."

He added: "Now it's pretty unusual for us to get an area of low pressure as deep as this so close to the UK during this time of year at this stage of April.

"So it is going to be unseasonably windy and there will be some heavy rain around at times particularly across northern and western parts.

"But worth noting that across parts of the South East actually we're not going to see a huge amount of rain on Saturday and we're going to drag in some very warm air."

Despite the wind and rain, temperatures are expected to remain mild over the weekend.

"There is a good chance we could see highs of 20C which would be the first time we have seen 20C this year," Mr Burkill said.