Storm Ashley – live: ‘Danger to life’ warning as UK to be hit by 80mph winds

The Environment Agency’s website is listing 41 active flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 132 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible.

The warnings include multiple areas of the River Severn, the south Cornwall coast and the Wye Estuary.

In Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued 16 flood warnings and a further 17 alerts, as far afield as Stonehaven, Ayr and Grangemouth.

Some 13 alerts have been issued in Wales, eight of them on the country’s south coast and three on the west.

Storm Ashley, the first named storm of the season will initially hit Ireland on Sunday morning, where warnings for strong winds are in force across seven counties, including Galway, Mayo, Kerry and Donegal.

It will then track northeastwards and reach the UK early on Sunday morning, according to the Met Office, bringing with it likely power cuts, damage to buildings and travel disruption. Dozens of flood warnings are also in place.

You can find more details on what to expect in this report:

A further yellow alert for heavy rain has been issued in south Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and parts of Dorset and Somerset between 3am and midday on Sunday.

Between 15 and 25mm of rain is expected to fall in most affected areas. However upslopes exposed to the strong southerly winds could see 35 to 45mm, while potentially as much as 65mm could fall on Dartmoor, the Met Office said.

The BBC shipping forecast has issued some 30 gale warnings for locations in the waters around Britain, including near the Hebrides, Dover, the Thames and the Irish Sea.

The BBC’s shipping forecast is predicting violent storm force 11 in Shannon, Ireland.

On the Beaufort scale used to measure winds, 11 is the second highest reading, behind hurricane-force.

Storm Ashley is currently developing rapidly as it moves across the Atlantic, undergoing a process known as “explosive cyclogenesis”, according to the Donegal Weather Channel.

Storm Ashley will bring a wet and windy end to the weekend, the Met Office has said, as it published this hour-by-hour forecast of tomorrow’s weather:

Train operator ScotRail also issued advice ahead of expected disruption on Sunday, urging those travelling to check their services are still running.

Scott Prentice, the strategy and planning director at the operator said: “In order to keep our customers and staff safe, speed restrictions will be in place as a precautionary measure on some routes in Scotland, which will mean longer journey times.

“Customers should check their journey before setting off, and keep an eye on our website, app or social media feeds for live updates.”

An orange wind warning has been extended to cover four counties ahead of Storm Ashley’s arrival on the island of Ireland.

Clare and Donegal have been added to the orange alert that initially covered Mayo and Galway.

The warning will be in place from 12pm to 9pm on Sunday.

Met Eireann said the first named storm of the season will bring very strong and gusty south to south-west winds, coupled with high spring tides.

The counties covered could see gusts of up to 130kph.

The forecaster said there was the possibility of coastal flooding, large coastal waves, displacement of loose objects, fallen trees, very difficult travelling conditions, dangerous conditions at sea, damage to power lines and potential power outages, and damage to already weakened structures

The rest of the island is covered by a yellow wind warning.

Storm Ashley was named on 18 October as the first storm of the season.

A storm will be named when it has the potential to cause disruption or damage which could result in an amber or red warning.

When the criteria for naming a storm are met, either the Met Office, Met Éireann or KNMI can name a storm, taking the name from the latest list in alphabetical order.

The next five storms will be:

• Bert
• Conall
• Darragh
• Éowyn
• Floris