The last gasps of Hurricane Ernesto are set to bring unsettled weather to the UK from today, with yellow warnings issued on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 60mph will set in after a period of sunny weather that finally felt like summer for many.
The brunt will be concentrated in Scotland, but areas as far south as London will also see rain. Up to 150mm of rain is expected to fall within a 24-hour period in the worst-affected areas in the Highlands.
Even this will be mild compared to the full blast of the storm, which ripped through the he North Atlantic this week, with maximum winds of 85mph leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico and Bermuda without power.
Still, the weather is still something to be prepared for, even if Ernesto has now been downgraded to a tropical storm and will weaken still further by the time it reaches our shores.
Ernesto, the fifth named storm and the third hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season, is not the only dramatic weather to be heading for us from across the Atlantic.
The Met Office said yesterday that a strange white haze in the sky was not from clouds but from wildfire smoke drifting thousands of miles from massive blazes in the US and Canada.
‘Noticed a rather odd look to the sky today?’ they asked. ‘Wildfire smoke originating from North America, has turned the sky white and hazy in some areas, rather than blue. This may give a more vibrant sunset tonight and give an orange tinge to the almost full moon.’
Rain is expected from tomorrow, with the storm set to hit on Wednesday with further downpours, the Met Office said.
Forecaster Craig Snell said: ‘Ernesto, at the moment, is still out on the other side of the Atlantic as a tropical storm.’As we go through the next couple of days, it kind of weakens as it moves into cooler waters and gets absorbed into a more typical area of low pressure, which we kind of get quite often.’
He continued: ‘Because the tropical systems just have so much warmth and a lot of moisture in them, remnants of the warmth and remnants of the moisture will be still there in that weather system on Wednesday and Thursday, so it will enhance the rainfall.’
Wet and windy weather is not ‘unusual’ for August, Mr Snell added.
Weather warnings cover south-west Scotland and the Lothian borders region on Monday afternoon and evening, and north-east Scotland – including the Highlands, Strathclyde and Central, Tayside and Fife – for most of Wednesday and Thursday.
The Met Office said there could be delays to public transport, spray and flooding on roads, as well as potential power cuts and flooding in homes and businesses.
There is also a small chance that the spring tide will generate large waves that could result in injuries and a danger to life in coastal areas on Wednesday and Thursday, the weather service added.
Elsewhere in the UK, the forecast looks ‘quite unsettled’ and it will be a cooler week for many after a high of 34.8C in Cambridge was recorded on August 12.
The south and south-east of England are expected to enjoy the best of the drier weather next week with some warmer spells and highs of around 26C in East Anglia, Mr Snell said.
He said it was a ‘little too early’ to predict the outlook for the upcoming bank holiday weekend.
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