LONDON (AP) — Ireland and Scotland are braced for one of the most intense storms in decades, with forecasters warning of a danger to life and widespread disruption.
The national forecasters for Ireland and the U.K. both issued the most serious weather warnings Thursday about the impact of Storm Éowyn, which is expected to hit the Irish coast in the early hours of Friday before heading northeast to Scotland. With the storm bringing gusts of wind around 100 m.p.h. (161 k.p.h.), forecasters are warning of a danger to life.
Ireland’s Met Éireann has issued a rare nationwide red warning, the most serious, for wind across the country between 2 a.m. and 10 p.m. It said there’s a possible “danger to life” as well as “extremely dangerous travelling conditions” and the prospect of “coastal flooding in low-lying and exposed areas”
Simon Harris, who is expected to be replaced as Irish premier later Thursday, has urged people heed of the warning.
“The risk to life is extreme and real," he said. “You need to pay attention. Do not travel. Do not go near the sea.”
The U.K.’s Met Office has also issued a red warning for wind for Northern Ireland as well as central and southwestern areas of Scotland on Friday.
“We reserve the issuing of Red Warnings for the most severe weather which represents a likely danger to life and severe disruption, and that is the case with Storm Éowyn," the agency's chief meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.
Gundersen said winds could gust 80-90 m.p.h. quite widely for a time, and potentially up to 100 m.p.h. for exposed coasts in particular.
This is the first red warning issued for Northern Ireland since the Met Office moved to impact-based warnings in 2011. All schools in Northern Ireland have been advised to close on Friday.
The record for a gust in Northern Ireland is 124 m.p.h. in County Down in January 1974.
The Met Office warning applies from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Northern Ireland and for parts of southern Scotland between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The other nations of the U.K. — England and Wales — will also face disruption, with all parts of the country covered by one warning at some point on Friday.
“It’s important to note that even those away from the immediate Red Warning areas will still likely see disruptive weather, with travel plans likely to be severely impacted, as well as the possibility of power cuts for some," said Gundersen.
Dr Ambrogio Volonté, senior research fellow at the Department of Meteorology at the, University of Reading said Éowyn's structure mirrors some of the “most formidable storms of recent decades,” and its “predicted intensity puts it firmly in the ranks of the strongest we’ve experienced.”
Pan Pylas, The Associated Press
