South coast faces winds of up to 80mph from Storm Eunice, Met Office warns

THE Met Office has warned that Storm Eunice could bring winds of up to 80mph when it hits the south coast on Friday.

The yellow warning for the whole of England has been issued between midnight and 9pm, when strong gusts are forecast that could cause "significant disruption".

"Extremely strong winds may develop over south west England early on Friday, before spreading north and east during the morning," said the Met.

"It is not yet clear where within the warning area the strongest winds will be but gusts of 60-70 mph are possible over a reasonably large area with a small chance of a brief period of gusts reaching 80 mph, even inland.

"Coastal winds are likely to be the strongest."

The north of England, along with parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, could see snow and even blizzard conditions.

The alert also warned of a "small chance" of delays and cancellations to bus, train and ferry services.

"There is a small chance that flying debris will result in a danger to life, with fallen trees, damage to buildings and homes, roofs blown off and power lines brought down," said the forecaster.

"Where damaging winds occur, there is a chance that long interruptions to power supplies and other services may occur."