The British Isles are bracing for a new storm with wind speeds of up to 80mph as many parts are still reeling from Storm Isha’s trail of destruction.
Tens of thousands were left without power and rail and air services were heavily disrupted as the UK and Ireland was hit by gales up to 107mph from Storm Isha from Sunday evening.
Four people were killed on the roads including two after fallen trees, an 84-year-old man in Fife, Scotland and a man in his 60s in Limavady, County Derry/Londonderry. Two others – a woman in her 20s and a man – were killed in Ireland.
But as the weather started to calm on Monday, people living in many parts of the UK were warned by the Met Office of the newly-named Storm Jocelyn which is set to hit on Tuesday morning, bringing with it strong winds and rain.
An amber “danger-to-life” weather warning will be in place for north west and northern Scotland from 6pm on Tuesday until 8am on Wednesday. Yellow weather warnings for wind and rain cover the Midlands and the north of the UK from Tuesday morning.
It will come only hours after Storm Isha caused significant travel disruption and left tens of thousands of homes without power. Power outages affected about 53,000 houses at the height of the storm in Northern Ireland.
Around 30,000 properties were without power across England, Wales and Scotland on Monday morning, according to the Energy Networks Association, which represents energy providers.
Ireland ESB energy company said 155,000 homes and businesses remained without power by lunchtime on Monday, down from 230,000 at its peak, with the worst-hit areas in the northwest.
Fallen trees affected transport, with Traffic Scotland reporting stretches of the M9 and M74 among the roads closed, while the A1 southbound was blocked at Thorntonloch because of an overturned lorry.
And there could be more disruption on the way as a new weather system, which has been named Storm Jocelyn by Met Eireann, Ireland’s meteorological office, makes landfall on Tuesday. It will be the 10th named storm to hit the UK since September.
ScotRail announced late on Monday afternoon that all services will be suspended from 7pm on Tuesday.
The UK Met Office said there was a “good chance” of power cuts again in Scotland that have the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage.
There will “probably” be some damage to buildings from tiles blowing off roofs, longer journey times are possible and cancellations also likely as road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected.
People are also urged to take care when visiting the coast, where larger than normal waves are expected.
Yellow warnings for wind and rain are also in force across parts of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Two-and-half inches of rain could fall in some of the worst affected areas of Cumbria and Lancashire, the Met Office said.
Met Office map shows where warnings are in place
The Met Office said the weather conditions were being driven by another strong jet stream , pushing a large-scale, low-pressure system from the Atlantic across northern half of the UK, bringing wet and windy conditions on Tuesday evening and into Wednesday.
Steve Willington, Met Office chief meteorologist, said: “Although this system will be a step down relative to Storm Isha, with the damage and clean up still underway, we could potentially see more impacts from Storm Jocelyn.
“Outbreaks of heavy rain on Tuesday could bring rainfall accumulations of 15 to 20 mm quite widely with 40 to 50 mm over higher ground in southwest Scotland, the Scottish Highlands and parts of northwest England.
“Wind gusts are expected to reach 55 to 65 mph across northwestern Scotland while there is potential for winds to gust to 75 to 80 mph in a few places, in particular exposed parts of the Western Isles and coastal northwest Scotland early on Wednesday morning.”
A fallen tree lies at a bus stop, during Storm Isha, in Linlithgow, Scotland
ScotRail has been dealing with fallen trees on railway tracks. It announced on Monday afternoon that all services will be suspended from 7pm on Tuesday.
