Storm Darragh is right here! Brutal 90mph winds and rain make landfall as Britain faces in a single day battering and hundreds of thousands are despatched ‘keep indoors’ pink alert

Britons are bracing for Storm Darragh after it made landfall in Ireland Friday evening, with video from County Mayo showing lashing winds and near-horizontal rain battering the seafront. 

The full force of Storm Darragh is set to hit the UK overnight, with high waves already spotted off the coast of Aberystwyth in Wales and reports of high winds in the southwest of England.  

The Met Office have issued a rare ‘danger to life’ red wind warning for the early hours of Saturday, with ‘significant disruption’ expected between 3am until 11am across most of the coast of Wales including Cardiff and Swansea, as well as parts of Bristol and North Somerset.

People in the red wind warning areas risk potentially lethal flying debris and falling trees, as well as large waves and beach material being thrown on to coastal roads, sea fronts and homes, the Met Office said. 

There is also also a risk of large waves and power cuts affecting other services such as mobile phone coverage, as well as significant risk of major property damage, including damage to buildings and homes, with the possibility of roofs blown off and power lines brought down. Transport infrastructure is also likely to be majorly impacted, with delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights highly likely. 

National Highways issued an amber severe weather alert for strong winds in the South West and North West regions of England between 1am and 9pm today.

Road users in those regions of England are advised to check ahead and plan for disruption to their journeys.

The M48 Severn Bridge in Gloucestershire is closed in both directions between J1 (Aust) and J2 (Chepstow) due to strong winds associated with Storm Darragh, with road users advised to use the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge as an alternate route.

Christmas events and flights were cancelled, and football games postponed as the 90mph winds made their way across the Atlantic Ocean today. 

Brits in the worst hit areas were urged to ‘stay indoors’ and to strap down their Christmas decorations as the Met Office issued an emergency alert at 6.45pm on Friday to the mobile phones of three million people across parts of southwest England and Wales. 

The alert was issued to millions of Brits in both Welsh and English, with guidance on how to stay safe in light of the perilous weather tomorrow.

Storm Darragh has already hit the Republic of Ireland, with seven counties subject to red wind warnings overnight.

Airports have warned of potential disruption and some ferries have been cancelled. A series of festive events have also been called off across the weekend.

Authorities on both sides of the border had made preparations ahead of the worst of the storm making landfall. 

The official Irish meteorological office Met Eireann’s highest level of alert cover counties Mayo, Clare, Galway, Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo and Wicklow.

The Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris urged those living in areas covered by red warnings to take them “extraordinarily seriously”. 

“A red weather warning does mean do not travel during that period of time, and even though it is a Friday night and coming up to the Christmas season, I’d really encourage people to heed that advice and indeed to follow closely weather advice in the hours ahead,” he said.

“Of course, there’s an orange weather warning for the rest of the country as well. So, really, people in that area should avoid any unnecessary travel at all. It is important people take these warnings very, very seriously in terms of protecting life in the hours ahead.”

ESB Networks said the high winds are expected to cause damage to electricity infrastructure, particularly in counties subject to the red warnings.

The rest of the Republic of Ireland will be covered by a Met Eireann orange wind warning. In Munster and Connacht, that warning came into effect at 8pm on Friday and will extend to 10am on Saturday.

The orange alert for Leinster and counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan came into effect two hours later at 10pm and will also lift at 10am on Saturday.

A Met Eireann yellow wind warning covering the whole state came into place at 3pm on Friday. It will remain in effect after the orange warnings lift and will be in place until 3pm on Saturday.

A yellow rain warning for Connacht, and counties Clare, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath came into place at 10am on Friday and will lift at 10am on Saturday.

In Northern Ireland, the Met Office has issued an amber wind warning covering the whole region from 1am on Saturday to 9pm.

A yellow rain warning came into effect in Northern Ireland at 3pm on Friday and will lift at 12pm on Saturday. A yellow wind warning also came into place at 3pm on Friday.

In England it is understood residents in Devon, Bath and North East Somerset, the City of Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Somerset, Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Newport have been alerted 

A Cabinet Office Spokesperson said: ‘The Met Office has issued a red warning for wind across parts of England and Wales from 0300 hrs until 1100 hrs on Saturday 7th December.

‘In light of the damaging winds and associated disruption, the Cabinet Office will issue an Emergency Alert at 1845 hrs on Friday 6th December to people in areas covered by the red warning in parts of Wales and the South West.

‘The Emergency Alert system will send a message to every compatible mobile phone in the impacted areas, containing information about the red warning and guidance on how to stay safe into Saturday. 

‘This will be the largest ever use of the system outside a test scenario.

‘Mobile phones will make a loud siren-like sound even if they are set on silent. The sound and vibration will last for about 10 seconds.

‘The UK Government has well rehearsed plans in place for severe winter weather and is working with teams from devolved governments, local authorities, the emergency services and other public bodies to coordinate the response to any disruption.’

As the UK braces for Storm Darragh, National Highways and National Rail have suspended several train services and planned roadworks.

From 9pm tonight, numerous train services will be suspended in Wales. 

Transport for Wales routes running between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog tomorrow have been cancelled. 

Services between Llandrindod and Shrewsbury will not be running from this evening. 

A number of trains heading between Pembroke Dock and Carmarthen will also not be travelling as of 9pm tonight. 

Several South Western Railway routes have been suspended with several Great Western Railway routes being ‘significantly impacted’. 

In London Jubilee line and Overground are experiencing minor delays, however there is no service on parts of the Piccadilly line.

Roadworks scheduled on the M42 between junctions 6 and 7a have also been cancelled ahead of Storm Darragh. 

Network Rail have since advised commuters to check their travel routes before making any journeys this weekend. 

They have particularly advised those travelling in the city region of Liverpool and Cumbria to take extra care and urged them to plan their journeys in advance.

Chris Pye, Network Rail’s North West infrastructure director, said: ‘We are doing everything we can to prepare the railway for Storm Darragh.

‘I’d urge passengers to check before they travel as there may be some disruption to services during the extreme weather.

‘If you live near the railway, please can you secure any loose objects in your gardens such as trampolines and furniture. 

‘It is a serious safety risk if they blow onto the tracks and creates more work for our teams who will be on hand around the clock to keep passengers safely on the move.’

It comes as the storm swept across the Atlantic this afternoon, bringing torrential downpours set to spark flooding and travel chaos in parts of the UK this weekend. 

Two football matches in the Championship – Cardiff City v Watford and Plymouth Argyle v Oxford United – were called off today due to concerns for supporters’ safety.

Meteorologists said a period of ‘extremely strong winds’ will develop during the early hours of tomorrow morning as the low pressure system moves across the Irish Sea.

Forecasters told residents to ‘stay indoors if you can’ and ‘avoid travelling by road during potentially dangerous conditions – it is not safe to drive in these conditions’.

Yellow and amber warnings were also imposed for other parts of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, with those relating to the storm starting at 3pm today.

Flights could be delayed – with Ryanair warning of ‘potential disruptions to or from the UK’, and Jet2 saying: ‘We plan to operate our flights as close to schedule as possible, however there may be some disruption should the weather deteriorate.’

Homeowners were urged to secure loose items outside their properties such as Christmas decorations, bins, garden furniture, trampolines, tents, sheds and fences.

The red alert, issued just after 10am today, also urged people to ‘consider gathering torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack and other essential items’.

Red warnings are a rare event, with the last one issued by the Met Office just under a year ago on January 21, 2024 for 99mph Storm Isha – and today is only the 19th time in records dating back to 2011 that a red warning has been imposed.

Meanwhile a series of Christmas events this weekend were cancelled due to the forecast, including markets in towns such as Romsey, Hampshire; Taunton, Somerset; and Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire.

Elsewhere, the start of Bolton’s ‘Put Big Light On’ lights festival was postponed, and an ice sculpture trail in Darlington was also put back by a week.

Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire said it will not open tomorrow due to the storm for safety reasons.

In racing, Sandown’s Betfair Tingle Creek Chase meeting and the Boylesports Becher Chase fixture at Aintree tomorrow must pass precautionary inspections due to the threat of high winds.

Belfast City Council said on its website that the city’s Christmas market will stay closed tomorrow due to the weather warnings.

Tomorrow, the Met Office said gusts of ’90mph or more’ are possible over the coasts and hills of West and South Wales, as well as funnelling through the Bristol Channel.

Exposed beaches could be struck by ‘very large waves’ amid the ‘damaging winds’, and forecasters told of ‘danger to life due to flying debris and falling trees’.

There could also be power cuts, mobile phone coverage outages and ‘damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down’. 

In addition, the Met Office warned roads, bridges and railway lines could be closed along with delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights. 

The Met Office has also issued a 39-hour yellow wind warning for the whole of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and much of Scotland, from 3pm today until 6am on Sunday.

And an 18-hour amber wind warning along the UK’s west coast from South Ayrshire down to Cornwall, as well as in Northern Ireland, will run tomorrow from 3am to 9pm.

The deepening low pressure system will bring a ‘risk to life and property’, with Christmas events such as light shows, trails and markets axed across the country.

It comes after a very wet and windy day preceded the storm, with a ‘mini tornado’ striking Clayton in Staffordshire at 5pm yesterday – and residents saying it ripped up grass and roof tiles amid a ‘deafening sound’ that was ‘like a bomb going off’.

And a Loganair flight from Manchester to Aberdeen was forced to turn back after 30 minutes when lightning cracked the plane’s windshield at about 4.30pm yesterday.