Amber wind warning for Scotland as Storm Boelo nears
Network Rail will close lines in the west and north of Scotland from the night of 24 October, with speed restrictions across large parts of the country.
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for wind covering all of mainland Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the far north of England as Storm Boelo approaches.
The warning covers Saturday night, 24 October, and Sunday 25 October, the Met Office said.
Widespread gusts of 60-70mph are forecast. Gusts of 80mph are possible in exposed coastal locations.
Mark Sidaway, the Met Office’s deputy chief forecaster, said: “People should prepare by securing loose items outside their property, being ready in case of power outages and being aware of likely travel disruption.”
Network Rail said lines in the west and north of Scotland would close during the storm, with trains at reduced speeds across large parts of the country from late on 24 October.
The first closures begin on the night of 24 October, when services south and west of Kilwinning stop and the Oban and Mallaig lines close. On 25 October, the line between Kyle of Lochalsh and Achnashellach will be closed from the start of service, as will the railway between Wick and Helmsdale.
Craig Gorman, head of operational weather strategy at Network Rail Scotland, said the railway had to “put safety first and make sensible calls before conditions deteriorate”.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said it had moved to Yellow Alert status in the north of Scotland, citing “the strong likelihood” that storm-force winds on 24 and 25 October would affect customers’ power supplies. The company said it expected gusts of up to 83mph in the North Highlands on 25 October, would send text messages to more than 220,000 of its more vulnerable customers and urged people to save 105 on their phones as the number for reporting a power cut.
After the weekend, the Met Office said, unsettled conditions are forecast to persist, especially in the north, as another area of low pressure approaches the UK and brings further wet and windy weather.
What happened before
Storm Austen, named on 20 October, was the first named storm of the season and carried its own amber warning.
The Met Office named Storm Boelo, which it said is pronounced Boo-loh, on 22 October. It issued yellow wind warnings for mainland Scotland, the Western Isles, Orkney and the far north of England, and a separate yellow warning for Northern Ireland.
The Austen warning expired on 23 October as the storm moved into the Low Countries, with gusts of 76mph recorded at St Mary’s airport in the Isles of Scilly in the early hours of that day. The amber warning for Storm Boelo followed the same day.
