Northern Ireland weather: Stormy weekend ahead... six days in February so far without sun - Met Office Yellow Warning

​The Met Office has also confirmed what an unusually dull month February has been in Northern Ireland - with six days so far not reporting any daily sunshine, by the forecaster's standards. The Province has only seen 46% of its normal hours of sunshine by this date in February.

Going into this weekend, warnings have been issued right across the UK, as heavy rain and strong winds are set to cause disruption.

A Yellow wind warning saw gusts of up to 65mph this morning across much of Northern Ireland, resulting in significant travel disruption.

Friday morning saw fallen trees closing roads on the Ards Peninsula and the Bangor to Newtownards Dual Carriageway.

In Downpatrick a van hit a fallen tree on Ardglass Road at Downshire Hospital while a fallen tree partly blocked access to St Colman’s High School in Ballynahinch.

The Glenshane Bypass was closed in both directions between Dungiven and Maghera due to a landslide.

And a large fallen tree blocked the A50 Bann Road at Castlewellan, while the Strangford Ferry was suspended due to the high winds. Road users were also advised to avoid the Pettigo Road in Kesh due to fallen trees.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge highlighted how unusually dull February has been so far for Northern Ireland.

“We would have to wait until the month end to determine whether any records have been set," he said.

"However, Northern Ireland has only recorded 30.6 hours of sunshine during February 2025. This equates to around 46% of what we would expect for the month. At this stage in February we would expect to be at around 70% for it to be an average month.

"We have had six days, 13-18 February, where none of our Northern Ireland Land weather station sites reported any daily sunshine. The Observation site at Katesbridge has had eight consecutive days, 11 to 18 February without sunshine."

He added that according to Met Office records going back to 1910, the sunniest February for NI was 2004 with 102.3 hours of sunshine. The dullest was in 1993 when there were only 24.6.

Mr Madge also explained what to expect from the Yellow warning for wind across NI from 3am to 3pm on Sunday.

"Southerly winds are expected to increase through Sunday morning, peaking late morning to early afternoon with gusts of 50-60mph, and perhaps as much as 70mph on the exposed Irish Sea coastline and some other areas of high ground," he said.

"Strong winds and heavy rain will affect all of Northern Ireland. The broad front of rain should have largely passed through by early afternoon, but strong winds and showers will persist into Monday.

“Temperatures will remain reasonably high for February with highs of 12-13C likely.”