Heavy rain to batter western Scotland as Met Office issues yellow flood warning

A yellow weather warning with a potential risk of flooding has been issued as heavy rain is set to batter parts of western Scotland.

Up to 50-75mm of rainfall is expected from 5pm on Wednesday through to the early hours of Friday morning, with 100-150mm of rain expected to fall over the western-facing mountains.

The Met Office warning covers most of western Scotland and expires at 6am on Friday.

Forecasters said up to 200-250mm of rainfall is expected from Tuesday through Thursday in the worst-affected mountain areas.

The rain is these areas will most likely be accompanied by a spell of strong winds.

The areas affected by the warning are:

Central
Tayside & Fife
Perth and Kinross
Stirling
Highlands & Eilean Siar
Strathclyde
Argyll and Bute
Inverclyde
North Ayrshire
Renfrewshire
West Dunbartonshire

The public has been warned to expect delays to public transport, spray and flooding on roads, as well as potential power cuts and flooding in homes and businesses.

Some communities may be cut off by flooded roads, and there is a chance that fast-flowing or deep floodwater could result in a danger to life, the Met Office added.

Insight Philip Petrie STV News Meteorologist

Whilst high pressure is giving quiet weather this week to England and Wales, for us here in Scotland it is turning increasingly unsettled, increasingly wet and windy. On Monday and Tuesday we have weather fronts coming in from the Atlantic, bringing damp and windy weather with the rain becoming more widespread overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. The focus of the heaviest rain will be in the west with winds increasing in strength too.

Another system comes through Wednesday night and Thursday, giving various pulses of further heavy rain. This system has already caused the Met Office to issue a yellow weather warning for rain from 5pm on Wednesday until 6am on Friday. It is quite unusual for the Met Office to issue a warning so far in advance, so I think we should keep an eye on things to see how this week develops.

We are likely to see 50-70mm of rain in western parts, locally 100-150mm, during the warning period and that is on top of the rain that we’ll be seeing on Tuesday, so it is likely we will see some impacts and disruption, flooding and a lot of surface water on roads. Along with the rain the winds will also be quite strong, reaching severe gales around western coastal places.

By the end of the week we are seeing an area of low pressure developing out in the Atlantic, which is being deepened by both the remnants of Hurricane Humberto and Tropical Storm Imelda. At the moment there is still some uncertainty as to how the weather will develop later on in the week and we will just be keeping an eye on things in case further warnings or escalations are required.