The North East caught the edge of weather system Storm Abigail on Thursday night into Friday morning as gale-force winds, coupled with driving rain, soaked the region.
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You may have heard that the first storm potent enough to be given a human name is set to hit – but the South West will escape the worst of what it has to offer.
Ferries have also been disrupted with more than half of the services on 25 routes along the Clyde and Bebrides network being cancelled, according to thte BBC.
It will bring strong winds across the far north of the United Kingdom tomorrow evening and into Friday with a severe national weather warning issued with gusts of 120km/h in a few places.
“We could see quite a lot of lightning as well and high tides, so with that in mind we have upgraded to amber”.
Wind gusts over 85 km/h (50 mph) are expected in these areas with wind gusts of 95-115 km/h (60-70 mph) possible over northern and western Scotland, as well as Orkney and Shetland.
However STV weather presenter Sean Batty said that we shouldn’t let the name startle us TOO much, as gales of a similar speed to Storm Abigail are fairly normal for the time of year.
The ferry operator CalMac warned of likely disruption to services and urged travellers to think carefully if planning to visit the west coast.
Leon adds: “We expect the rest of November to December to be dominated by a very wet and stormy spell driven by a strong Atlantic jet stream”.
We have also been warned to not be fooled by the relatively calm weather this morning – as it literally is the calm before the storm.
It is hoped that the naming of storms will raise awareness of severe weather and ensure that key messages reach as many people as possible.
The most damaging and troublesome impacts from winter storms in the United Kingdom and Ireland tend to be high winds and flooding.
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Clodagh, Mary, Nigel, Henry, Abigail and Wendy were among names chosen to be given to future storms after a competition attracted thousands of responses from the public.
