A weather warning for heavy rain and wind is set to come into effect in the early hours of Monday morning.
Met Éireann has officially named the weather front, Storm Debi, which will be affect the island of Ireland and parts of the UK.
The Met Office has issued the weather warning for the whole of Northern Ireland, beginning at 3am and running right through until 2pm.
Jason Kelly, Chief Meteorologist with the Met Office, said: “Storm Debi will develop quickly and bring potentially very strong and damaging winds to parts of the Republic of Ireland, which is why Met Éireann has decided to name the system.
“The strongest winds are expected to affect parts of the Republic of Ireland early on Monday, possibly coinciding with the morning commute, before then affecting parts of north Wales and northern England into the afternoon. Whilst the very strongest winds will have eased somewhat before reaching the UK, we are still expecting some significant impacts and a wind warning has been issued.
“Additionally, Debi will bring a period of heavy rain to Northern Ireland for which a combined wind and rain warning has been issued.”
In comes less than a fortnight after Storm Ciaran wreaked havoc on Newry and Portadown, causing widespread flooding which left businesses and residents reeling.
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Storm Debi will develop, in part, because of a very strong jet stream crossing the Atlantic. The core of the jet stream is currently located to the south of the UK. This strong jet stream is responsible for the very unsettled period of weather we are currently experiencing. Further areas of low pressure may develop and affect the UK during the coming week.
Storm Debi is the fourth storm named as part of the 2023/2024 storm-naming initiative involving the Met Office, Met Éireann and KNMI, the Dutch national met service.
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