Northern Ireland weather: Yellow warnings in place for wind and rain as Storm Betty sweeps in

Storm Betty is set to bring strong winds and trigger heavy rain on Friday in the second named storm in August.

Forecasters say that Storm Betty is to hit the Republic of Ireland, before it moves from the south of Ireland to the north on Friday and into Saturday.

Met Office chief meteorologist Jason Kelly said: “Friday and Saturday will see unseasonably wet and windy conditions for much of the UK.

“While Storm Betty will have higher impacts in Ireland, exposed Irish Sea coasts of the UK could see gusts in excess of 70mph, with around 50mph more widely.

“Storm Betty is also bringing some large accumulations of rainfall for the time of year, with some spots of Northern Ireland seeing around 80mm of rain, though between 15-25mm is expected more widely."

A yellow weather warning for wind, from Friday at 6pm to noon on Saturday, said people should be aware that the very strong and gusty winds, associated with Storm Betty, could bring some disruption to transport, travel and temporary infrastructure.

It covers north-west England, Northern Ireland, south-west Scotland, Lothian Borders, south-west England and Wales.

It states: “Storm Betty is expected to bring a swathe of very strong and gusty winds to the Isles of Scilly early Friday evening, quickly transferring north across many western parts of the UK overnight and into Saturday morning.

"Strongest winds will be along south to south-west-facing coasts where gusts of 60-70mph are possible, whilst gusts of 45-55 mph are possible elsewhere.”

The Met Office has also issued yellow weather warnings for rain in Northern Ireland from Friday at 9pm through to Saturday at 6am.

The weather is expected to stay mixed for the rest of the weekend.