Storm Franklin is set to hit the UK, with an amber weather warning issued for Northern Ireland, the Met Office has said.
Gatekeepers News reports that Storm Franklin, which will bring ‘gale force westerly winds with severe and damaging gusts’, is set to hit the UK in the early hours of Monday morning.
Met Office said there will be heavy rain on Sunday and Monday, adding that “flying debris” could put people’s lives in danger.
This is amid the disruption caused by Storm Eunice. Thousands of homes are still without power and train services continue to be disrupted.
Energy Networks Association has said: “Since it first hit, Storm Eunice has officially caused the highest number of power cuts in a 24 hour period our South West region has ever experienced.
“Our engineers are continuing to work relentlessly to restore supplies to our customers despite the awful conditions.”
Elsewhere Great West Railway is running reduced services while trains in South Wales and the west are being restricted to a 50mph speed limit by Network Rai as engineers try and clear debris, including trees, from 20,000 miles of track.
This is the first time the Met Office has had three named storms within a week since the current system was introduced, meteorologist Becky Mitchell said.
“We had Dudley on Wednesday, Eunice on Friday and Franklin today,” she pointed out.
The reason for the sequence is because “we’ve got a really active jet stream, which is why we’re seeing so many storms track right towards the UK”, Ms Mitchell added.
There are two more Met Office weather warnings in place:
• A yellow warning for rain covering Cumbria, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire until 6pm on Sunday, with a chance of flooding and difficult driving conditions
• A yellow warning for wind across most of England and Wales from midday on Sunday until 1pm on Monday, with damage and disruption possible
Sunday could see gales of up to 70mph in parts of England – the same speed recorded at Heathrow on Friday as thousands of people tuned in to YouTube channel Big Jet TV to see planes trying to land.
Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst on Saturday said: “We will see a slight easing in the wind over the evening time tonight, but it’s not long before they pick up again tomorrow to lead to another windy day across the UK.
“This will have an impact on the clearing up process over the course of the day.”
