Southern England will be hit by 60mph gusts and heavy rain today as Storm Ivo strikes the coast - the third named storm to impact Britain in just six days. The storm, which was named in Portugal, will see torrential downpours pushing in from the South West this morning before spreading east along to Kent. The strongest gusts are expected in Cornwall and could reach 57mph at St Just this evening.
Devon could hit 48mph at Salcombe, and Dorset 34mph at Weymouth. London will be spared from the worst of the gusts, with 22mph expected. The heaviest rain throughout today will be in southern England, although there will also be frequent showers in northern Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.
Northern and central England along with Wales will be mostly dry and sunny before rain clears from southern England tonight, leaving most areas dry overnight. Flooding also remains a major risk with the Environment Agency issuing 23 flood and alerts for England today, while Natural Resources Wales has seven alerts. It comes after Britain was hit at the start of this week by Storm Herminia, named in Spain. This followed mph Storm Eowyn, named by the Met Office , which struck the UK and Ireland last Friday and caused two deaths and widespread travel chaos.
A fallen tree at Holmwood near Glasgow following strong winds brought by Storm Eowyn last Friday, in a photograph released by National Trust for Scotland today. A motorist drives along a flooded country lane in Dunsden, Oxfordshire, this morning. Heavy rain and strong winds will affect the south coast of England throughout today. The bad weather in recent days in the UK was linked to Storm Herminia, which has now cleared to the east and named 'Ivo' by the Free University of Berlin.
Separately, Portugal has given the name 'Storm Ivo' to another low pressure area pushing its way just to the south of the UK today. The Environment Agency has issued flood alerts in amber and 23 warnings in red today. Much of the UK will be dry tomorrow with frost and any fog clearing to leave plenty of sunshine, although there will be blustery showers for the far North East. Friday will again be largely dry for most areas with any rain clearing south-eastwards in the morning, before it turns wet and windy in the North West on Saturday.
