The tail end of Hurricane Katia is heading for Scotland and seems ready to hit the country during the Monday morning rush hour with what are expected to be the worst storms in 15 years.
The low-pressure weather system is currently accelerating towards Scotland from the Atlantic, where winds of 130mph and waves of more than 20 feet have been reported.
The hurricane, which last night was circling off the coast at Newfoundland, Canada, is due to reduce to tropical storm status – the same level as the storm that hit New York and the US eastern seaboard last month – as it moves east across the ocean.
John Cangialosi, at the US National Hurricane Centre, said that Katia was expected to become a “classic wintertime storm” by the time it reaches Scotland.
Government forecasters, who issued a severe weather warning covering almost all of the UK, are considering upgrading their amber alert for southern Scotland to a red – a rarely-seen level meaning “take action”.
The Met Office said Katia is expected to be the most powerful such storm to hit Britain since 1996’s Hurricane Lili.
Winds of up to 80mph are expected in parts of the country tomorrow with structural damage, fallen trees and disruption to traffic anticipated. Experts are particularly concerned about storm surges in coastal areas with the autumn equinox already creating high tides that could be easily exacerbated by strong winds.A spokesman for the Met Office in Aberdeen said: “Hurricane Katia will move out of its hurricane form as it moves into the colder waters of the Atlantic but it will still be a powerful area of low pressure that comes into the UK overnight tonight and into Monday morning.
“It is expected to move northwest, past the Irish coast and just west of the outer Hebrides. That will bring a band of reasonably heavy rain throughout the country in the early hours of Monday morning and will bring in strong south westerly winds across Scotland.”
Gusts of 50mph to 60mph can be expected in the central belt, with 80mph winds anticipated for the northwest coast.
He added: “There will be strong winds throughout Monday morning and I would have thought through the rush hour. It won’t be a pleasant start to the working week.”
The spokesman said that fallen trees, disruption to travel and reduced speed limits in exposed areas could be expected given the type of wind speeds anticipated.
“The trees have still got a full leaf and trees like this do tend to topple when there are high winds, plus the ground is still pretty sodden.
“There could well be problems with trees on roads and transport could well be disrupted as a result. I would imagine there could be restrictions in place on key routes, such as the major road bridges.”
A forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather unit at the Press Association, added that structural damage to buildings was likely, with flash flooding also expected to be part of the mix.
Winds are due to “ease considerably” moving into Wednesday, with the band of low pressure then heading north towards Scandinavia.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said yesterday it was “too early” to put flood warnings in place, but the situation was being monitored closely.
A more detailed picture of the storm and its behaviour is expected later today.
The Association of British Insurers said it was “well equipped” to deal with the aftermath of any serious storm.
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