Northern Ireland told to brace for Storm Agnes which is due to sweep over the Province on Wednesday

Driven by what Met Office forecasters are calling a “deep area of low-pressure”, the blusteriest areas are expected to be in coastal regions bordering the Irish Sea, with a yellow weather warning for wind in force across Northern Ireland and much of Great Britain from noon tomorrow into 7am Thursday.

What that yellow warning means, the agency says, is this: "A small chance of injuries and danger to life from flying debris, a slight chance of some damage to buildings such as tiles blown from roofs, and a slight chance that power cuts may occur”.

There is also a chance of danger from large waves, and some flooding of coastal roads is possible. Storm Agnes is expected to move into western areas of the UK and Ireland from tomorrow.

Met Office Chief Meteorologist Steve Ramsdale said: “While the precise track and depth of Storm Agnes is still being determined, there’s a high likelihood of wind gusts around 50 to 60mph for some inland areas.

"Exposed coastal areas could see gusts of 65-75 mph with a small chance of a few places seeing around 80mph. As well as some very strong winds for many, Storm Agnes will also bring some heavy rain, with the highest totals more likely in Scotland, northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland…

"Northern Ireland could see an excess of 30mm of rainfall in a relatively short period of time.”

For context, the website Statista reports that during the whole three-month autumn period, Northern Ireland typically gets about 433mm of rain (meaning 30mm would be about 7 per cent of the whole seasonal total).

Storm Agnes is expected to weaken as Thursday goes on.

The Met Office has been naming storms since 2015, and has a set list of what they will be called – with the ones after Agnes set to be, in this order, Storm Babet, Ciarán, Debi, Elin, and Fergus. A storm gets a name when forecasters judge it “has the potential to cause disruption or damage which could result in an amber or red warning”.