Traffic & Travel: Northern Ireland braced for windy weekend as first of two yellow weather warnings come into place

The Met Office has issued two weather warnings for Northern Ireland.

The first, which covers most of NI, is now in place.

The second covering all counties comes into place at midnight today, Saturday 21.

Today’s warning started at 7am and runs through to midnight

The second warning, which starts at midnight, will be in place until 9pm tomorrow, Sunday 22

The Met Office advises

• A prolonged period of strong winds will likely lead to some disruption over the weekend, especially to travel.
• Some delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport are likely
• It’s likely that some coastal routes, sea fronts and coastal communities will be affected by spray and/or large waves
• Probably some bus and train services affected, with some journeys taking longer
• Some short term loss of power and other services is possible
• Delays for high-sided vehicles on exposed routes and bridges likely

National weekend weather

A very windy weekend. Rain, then blustery showers. Turning colder.

Today it will be windy, with severe gales in the north. Rain moving south-eastwards across all parts on Saturday morning, lingering across southern England into the afternoon. Elsewhere turning sunnier, though colder, with blustery showers.

Frequent blustery showers continue overnight, turning increasingly to sleet and snow over the hills in the north and west. Some clear spells between the showers and remaining very windy.

A cold and very windy day on Sunday with sunny spells and blustery, wintry showers, these tending to fall as rain into the afternoon. Feeling cold despite the sunshine.