Northern Ireland weather: Back-to-back Met Office Yellow warnings for wind with gusts of 70mph expected over weekend - but 'more settled at Christmas🎄'

The first warning has been issued for Saturday 21 December between 7am and 11.59pm.

The Met Office warn that a ‘period of strong winds on Saturday is likely to lead to some transport disruption’.

Forecasters say that ‘strong westerly winds are expected to develop through the course of Saturday, with gusts of 50-60 mph developing quite widely across this region, and a small chance of gusts reaching 70 mph around some coasts and high ground areas’.

They add: ‘This has the potential to cause delays to public transport and some disruption to the road network, which may have a greater than usual impact given the busier pre-Christmas weekend travel.

‘Dangerous coastal conditions can be expected too, with large waves an additional hazard’.

And the next Yellow Weather Warning for wind is active from Midnight on Sunday 22 December until 9pm.

The Met Office say that a ‘prolonged period of strong winds will likely lead to some disruption over the weekend, especially to travel’.

The forecaster’s say that ‘strong and gusty northwesterly winds are expected to develop on Sunday’ and ‘gusts of 50-60 mph are expected quite widely, and around some exposed coasts and hills of gusts 70 mph are possible, especially in the north and west’.

They add: ‘In addition, squally showers are likely with some hail and thunder possible in places.

‘This has the potential to cause delays to public transport and some disruption to the road network, which may have a greater than usual impact given the busier pre-Christmas weekend travel,’ a forecaster said.

‘Dangerous coastal conditions can be expected too, with large waves an additional hazard’.

Meanwhile, today according to Met Office spokesman Andrea Bishop will be ‘a colder day than of late, particularly where exposed to northwest winds’.

‘Scattered showers and sunny spells. Showers most frequent early morning, turning lighter and increasingly isolated in the afternoon. Maximum temperature 7 °C,’ she said.

And tonight will be ‘a largely dry evening and night with some clear spells’ as ‘cloud increases later in the night with some patchy rain in the west’.

There will be a minimum temperature of 2 °C.

She added that Friday will see ‘outbreaks of rain, heavy for a time, clearing east by early afternoon’ and ‘then sunny spells with scattered showers’.

There will be a maximum temperature of 8 °C.

And the outlook for Saturday to Monday is ‘ a very windy weekend with showers or longer spells of rain, occasionally wintry Saturday night’.

There will be ‘lighter winds on Monday, dry at first, rain later’.

And giving a Christmas forecast, Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Harris said: “Current indications are that more settled conditions are likely to develop from Christmas Eve onwards, with the majority of the UK coming under the influence of high pressure.

"The exception however may be northwest Scotland where there is a reasonable chance of further wind and rain.

“Christmas Day itself is likely to be settled, often cloudy, and dry with light winds for the majority. Once again, the far north may be windier, with a small chance of further rain across northwest Scotland.

"Temperatures are expected to be widely mild, so if you are hoping for a blanket of snow across the country on Christmas Day, I’m sorry to say you will be disappointed.

"We’ll be giving more details as we get closer to the day, so do keep up-to-date with the latest Met Office forecast.”