Winds to Whip UK, North Sea Coast This Weekend

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

February 27,2015; 10:05PM,EST

 

 

A storm will whip across the United Kingdom and the North Sea this weekend with potentially damaging and disruptive winds.
The storm and its winds will sweep from the United Kingdom to the eastern coast of the North Sea late Saturday through early Sunday. Gusty winds on the storm's back side will persist into later Sunday.
A band of rain will also accompany the storm, but it will be more of a nuisance to those with outdoor plans and motorists than cause flash flooding.
"The strongest winds will blast Northern Ireland, western Scotland and the western half of Ireland," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Evan Duffey. "This includes Derry in Northern Ireland and Galway in Ireland."

Winds within this zone will gust between 80 and 95 kph (50 and 60 mph) Saturday afternoon and night.
"The mountaintops in the Scottish Highlands will even experience gusts to or past 115 kph (70 mph)," Duffey added. "Such winds will be bad for outdoor recreations in the northern Highlands."
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Winds of 75 to 80 kph (45 to 50 mph) will whip the rest of Ireland (including Dublin), as well as western and far southern England Saturday afternoon and night. Similar wind speeds will reach the eastern coast of the North Sea by Sunday morning.
"The main impacts of the strong winds will be to cause local damage and, more importantly, continued disruptions to sea and air travel," continued Duffey. Sporadic power outages may also ensue.

London and the rest of England will escape the fiercest winds but will still record gusts strong enough to easily toss around loose items and trigger flight delays.
The departure of the storm by the end of the weekend will not mean the United Kingdom and areas around the North Sea will catch a break from the breezy to windy and showery weather pattern. That will instead persist through the first part of next week with snow showers even returning to the higher terrain.