The Met Office has warned commuters in Northern Ireland to brace for rush hour disruption tomorrow evening, with the peak of Storm Amy’s high winds expected to peak around that time.

Forecaster Craig Snell made the comments to the News Letter as he revealed that, in the space of just a few hours today, some parts of Northern Ireland got a quarter of their average share of monthly rainfall.

A yellow weather warning for wind is in place tomorrow from 2pm until noon on Saturday, covering all of Northern Ireland, with localised gusts of wind expected to reach up to 70mph on hills, coasts, and especially in the north of the province.

Today, a yellow weather warning was in place for rain from 10am to 10pm, covering the whole of Northern Ireland, and with more rain due tomorrow ahead of the high winds’ arrival, Mr Snell said that Storm Amy presents a possible flood risk.

placeholder image — Met Office forecast for a band of heavy rain at about 2pm on Friday, preceding the peak winds

From just 7am to 2pm today, 31mm of rain fell at Lough Fea in the eastern Sperrins, while at Derrylin in Fermanagh 29mm fell over the same period, and in Magilligan in Co Londonderry some 22mm fell.

Mr Snell said that Northern Ireland’s average total rainfall for the month of October is around 115mm.

That means the 31mm which fell in seven hours at Lough Fea is 27% of that monthly average.

“To put it into perspective, at this point in the month of October – bearing in mind we’re only obviously two days in – we should only see about 3% to 4% of typical monthly rainfall,” he said.

“We’ve probably gone far above that at the moment.

“It’s certainly been a very wet start to October, and unfortunately we’re not done with the rain yet – we’ve got more rain to come on Friday as Storm Amy approaches.”

However, he added that it is “the wind we’re more concerned about” tomorrow.

“It’s probably peaking in the evening,” he said.

“Anyone that’s commuting home, expect potentially some travel delays. Trains, buses, ferries, airports all probably will have some knock-on effects with the strength of the wind.

“The rain will come through, and the winds will whip up behind it, then kind of moderating a little bit as we go through the night and into Saturday morning.

“But still when people wake up on Saturday morning, we’re still going to see gusts in the 30mph, 40mph bracket, so still a very blustery day.”

In Fermanagh and Omagh council area, a range of facilities will be shut during tomorrow and Saturday’s wind warning period, including Cuilcagh Boardwalk, Gortin Glens Forest Park, and council recycling centres.

In Derry and Strabane council area, cemeteries, playgrounds, and parks will close all day tomorrow and Saturday.

And in Armagh, Banbridge, and Craigavon council area, all parks, play parks, open spaces, golf courses, and recycling centres will be shut from 1pm tomorrow until 1pm on Saturday.

In Lisburn and Castlereagh, parks and open spaces will close from 2pm tomorrow to 6am on Saturday.

Meanwhile, NI Water is shutting Silent Valley Mountain Park from 2pm on Friday.

It will stay shut until it passes a safety inspection the following day.