STORM Diana brought gales and heavy rain to parts of the UK, with areas in Scotland also hit by flooding.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for wind in western parts of the UK on Wednesday – from Cornwall up the coast to the far north of Scotland – with coastal roads on the Isle of Arran left inaccessible due to strong winds and high tides.
Gusts of up to 75mph were expected to hit Shetland yesterday and continue on Thursday.
The flooding caused queues of traffic with knee-deep water along some routes.
The weather warning was in place until midnight last night but the poor conditions are expected to continue into today – a separate weather warning, in place until 3am this morning, was issued for the Highlands, Grampian and the Central Belt.
The Forth Road Bridge and Kessock Bridge were closed to high-sided vehicles yesterday evening.
Met Office spokesman Richard Miles said the warnings were at the “lower end of the impact scale”, but advised people to be cautious in the conditions.
He said: “We have a yellow warning for wind in the west of the UK for [yesterday] and [today].
“There could be some risks for high-sided vehicles on high roads, and people should be careful in coastal areas.
“We’ve also got a yellow warning for rain in Scotland with quite high levels of rain in the area, and we could see 40-50mm of rain across the hills.”
Diana is not on the list of the Met Office’s official storm names for this winter, and originated further south.
Miles said the storm, named by the Portuguese authorities, “had quite an impact on islands in the Atlantic”, but had weakened as it travelled towards the UK.
He explained: “By the time it got to us it would not meet the criteria for us to name it.”
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