UK on alert as 80mph winds approach

12 April 2012

Winds strong enough to damage properties and bring down trees are set to lash the UK this weekend, forecasters said.

The south west of England is expected to bear the brunt of the storms, building up on Saturday night and into Saturday, with winds reaching speeds of up to 80mph, according to forecasters MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association.

Snow is also expected to fall on the Pennines and further north in Scotland, with Wales also receiving a flurry before the snow turns back into rain.

Marco Petagna, forecaster for MeteoGroup, said: "Tonight we have outbreaks of rain preceded by snow moving north across parts of Scotland and the Pennines as well as the hills of Wales before turning back to rain.

"Tonight and tomorrow very strong winds will come across Devon and Cornwall with gusts of between 70mph and 80mph.

"Those sorts of winds could cause problems, with the potential to cause damage, a chance of trees coming down, particularly with the ground being wet, and certainly roof tiles being blown off.

"It stays windy in the South West and south-west Wales throughout tomorrow and not until the evening will the winds die down.

"The south coast could also experience winds of 50mph to 55mph."

Mr Petagna added that Saturday's temperatures will be between 3C and 5C in the North and up to 12C or 13C in the South West with Sunday the North reaching between 5C and 8C and 9C or 10C in most other areas of the country.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in