It could be time to check the mooring lines today if you haven’t already as hurricane Ophelia hits the southern Irish coast with gusts of 81mph – well into hurricane force in the Beaufort scale.
The violent storm is set to bring strong winds and heavy rain which are due to hit southern and central Scotland tonight while an amber “be prepared” warning was issued by the Met Office to cover the south-west of the country from lunchtime to 23:00 tonight.
Further strong winds warnings are in place for many areas on Tuesday. However as shown by the met maps Ophelia’s path is predicted to go north rather than east along the channel – which was the devastating path of the 1987 (Michael Fish) hurricane 30 years ago today.
Ophelia has now reached Ireland with wind gusts on the south coast reported up to 81mph. Yesterday the Met Office issued Northern Ireland with an amber “potential danger to life” warning.
Main image is from Ventusky.com showing winds gusting well into the red zone for 1300 hours today.
Met map shows Ophelia off SW Ireland at Midnight last night
Ophelia’s path is predicted to go north – centred on the west coast of Scotland by midnight tonight…
Ophelia’s predicted path for Tuesday lunchtime