Rain and wind weather warnings as Storm Kathleen officially named

Rain and wind weather warnings have been issued with much of Wales set to be hit by Storm Kathleen.

Blustery conditions are set to arrive on Friday as the storm, named by the Met Eireann, the Irish Meteorological Service, rolls in.

Gusts of 50mph are “expected quite widely” on Saturday, while some exposed areas, particularly on the coast, will see 60 to 70mph gusts with large waves also likely, the Met Office said.

Kathleen will be the 11th named storm of the 2023/24 season, and becomes only the second to reach the letter K, after Storm Katie in March 2016.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said, however, that temperatures will be mild, despite the wind and rain, he added: “There is a good chance we could see highs of 20C which would be the first time we have seen 20C this year.”

Low pressure

The forecaster has issued a yellow weather warning for wind with a deep area of low pressure in western areas, including most of Wales, parts of Scotland and the north-west and south-west of England from 8am to 10pm on Saturday.

Looking ahead at the next 10 days, Mr Burkill said: “There will be some wet weather around, could be quite heavy at times, but there are also some signs of something a little bit drier coming up later on.

“For the time being though, low pressure in control as we go through the next few days, various areas of low pressure pushing their way across, bringing spells of wet weather and some blustery conditions too.

“As we head towards Friday though, we have an area of low pressure pushing towards us and this feature has actually been named Storm Olivia by the Portuguese met service. It is going to bring some blustery, showery weather across parts of the UK.”

He added: “Now it’s pretty unusual for us to get an area of low pressure as deep as this so close to the UK during this time of year at this stage of April.

“So it is going to be unseasonably windy and there will be some heavy rain around at times particularly across northern and western parts.”