THE Met Office has warned there is a “good chance” of power cuts, “danger to life”, and major disruption to travel as the newly-named Storm Isha heads to the UK.

The weather service announced the name of the new storm on Friday morning as it introduced severe amber alerts for Sunday and Monday.

A yellow warning for snow and ice was already in place for much of mainland Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland on Friday, with warnings of potential injury and icy patches on roads and paths.

Further yellow warnings were in place for Sunday and Monday for wind and rain, covering all of Scotland except Shetland.

Now, more severe amber warnings have been brought in for wind across the central belt and southern Scotland, with the Met Office saying gusts could hit 80mph.

The amber warning of the impact of the coming Storm Isha is in effect from 6pm on Sunday January 21 until 9am on Monday.

The Met Office says the amber alert is in place to warn people:

  • There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage
  • Probably some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs
  • Longer journey times and cancellations likely, as road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected
  • Some roads and bridges likely to close
  • Injuries and danger to life is likely from large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties

The service further stated: “Very strong southwesterly winds will develop widely across Northern Ireland, western parts of England, Wales and the southern half of Scotland during Sunday evening. Gusts will frequently reach 50-60 mph, perhaps 70 mph at times in a few locations and, along exposed coastal stretches 80 mph is possible at times.

“During the early hours of Monday winds will turn westerly and affect a wider area of southern Scotland and northern England, before easing through the morning.”