Met Office issues Yellow Weather warning for NI as it reveals tornadoes may already have hit UK today

The Met Office has issued a Yellow Weather warning for high winds in Northern Ireland even as it says that tornadoes may have hit parts of the UK already today.
The Met Office has urged people to be prepared for large waves along the coast. Photo: Russell Pritchard / PresseyeThe Met Office has urged people to be prepared for large waves along the coast. Photo: Russell Pritchard / Presseye
The Met Office has urged people to be prepared for large waves along the coast. Photo: Russell Pritchard / Presseye

The Yellow warning is for weather conditions on Monday from 12:15am to 10am. It applies to County Antrim, County Down and County Londonderry as well as North West England.

The Met Office has warned that high winds may lead to some travel disruption.

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Also today it warned that tornadoes may have hit part of the UK today.

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The forecaster said some delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport are likely on Monday morning and that some bus and train services will probably be affected, with some journeys taking longer.

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It also warns of delays for high-sided vehicles on exposed routes and bridges and says some short term loss of power and other services are possible.

It is also likely that some coastal routes, sea fronts and coastal communities will be affected by spray and/or large waves and damage to trees is possible.

“Gales or severe gales are expected in many coastal areas during the early hours of Monday before easing later on Monday morning,” the forecaster said. “Winds will gust quite widely to between 50 and 60 mph along coasts, perhaps reaching 70 mph in the most exposed spots. Inland gusts are expected to be a little lower, peaking in the 40s or low 50s mph.”

The warning comes as the Met Office warned that Tornadoes are ‘not out of the question’ in parts of the UK today.

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Gusts of over 80mph have been recorded with reports of wind damage which may cause disruption to travel.

Yellow warnings for wind and rain are in place over large parts of the west and elsewhere, and more are likely.

Meteorologist Tom Morgan said the Met Office could not confirm any tornadoes but would not rule them out.

“We’ve got a deep Atlantic area of low pressure that’s bringing a very heavy band of rain and squalling winds across the whole of the country, but particularly in the south of England,” he said.

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“We’ve seen some very strong gusts of wind on the south coast… and a few reports of damage from the winds.

“It’s not out of the question that there will have been some localised, brief funnel clouds or tornadoes.

“In the last couple of days we have seen some reports and seen some photos of funnel clouds and water spouts, which are similar to tornadoes.”

Tornadoes occur when funnel clouds extend from the cloud base to ground, Mr Morgan said.

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He added that wind speeds of 87mph were recorded at an exposed location on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, and there were gusts of 60mph across Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Sussex.

“We can’t confirm that there have been any (tornadoes) but we have seen reports of wind damage,” Mr Morgan added.

“This kind of situation does lend itself to sometimes producing tornadoes so it’s something we can’t rule out and there is some evidence to suggest there have been some.”

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