Summary

Are you affected by the storm?

Live Reporting

Edited by Alex Smith and Craig Hoyle, with teams reporting from across the UK

  1. UK weather warnings: What you need to know

    When dangerous weather is forecast, a weather warning will be issued by the Met Office, the UK’s national weather service.

    Weather warnings are given a colour – yellow, amber or red - with yellow being the lowest, and red the most serious. The colour assigned depends on a combination of two things: the impact the weather is likely to have and the likelihood of it happening.

    • Yellow warnings: Are the ones you will see most often. They give you a heads up that severe weather is possible and to start planning for impacts to either travel, power or property
    • Amber warnings: Mean travel disruption is more likely and there is a potential risk to life and property
    • Red warnings: These are rare, and have only been issued a handful of times in recent years. They mean the Met Office believes that dangerous, potentially life-threatening weather is expected imminently and you should immediately take action to keep yourself and other safe
    A grid with colours ranging from green to yellow to orange to red. The yellow box is ticked

    An example of a Met Office warning matrix. Here, the position of the tick indicates that a yellow weather warning would be issued

  2. Yellow rain warning kicks in over Wales and large parts of England
    Breaking

    It's now 11:00 BST which means the second weather warning has just taken effect - a yellow rain warning covering large swathes of the country.

    Affected areas include the south-east, north-west England, south-west England, Wales, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.

    The warning remains in place until 23:00 tonight.

    The Met Office says to expect spray and flooding on roads, travel disruption and possible power cuts. It says flooding of some homes and businesses is also possible.

    • As a reminder: In an hour's time, a third warning will kick in - this time a yellow wind warning over Scotland and parts of England and Wales

  3. 'Hazardous' road conditions expected in Scotland, as drivers encouraged to delay journeys

    Police in Scotland has issued some travel advice ahead of Storm Boelo, with officials warning of "hazardous" conditions and a "high risk of disruption on the road network".

    "Our advice is to plan ahead and consider if your journey is really necessary or if it can be delayed until conditions improve," says Supt Andy Barclay.

    "Stopping distances can be at least double on wet roads compared to dry conditions, and spray can reduce driver visibility."

    HGV and bus drivers have been told to drive with "extreme caution" and are being told they might be asked to park in a "suitable position" by the police.

  4. Disruption expected across Scotland

    Graham Fraser
    BBC Scotland News

    A sandy beach in North Ayrshire on a story day, grey clouds in the sky and some big waves in the backgroundJulieBee/BBC Weather Watchers

    It's already looking rather grey in North Ayrshire this morning

    An amber weather warning is in place for the whole of mainland Scotland and the Western Isles from 21:00 tonight until 21:00 on Sunday.

    The Met Office says flying debris caused by very strong winds of up to 80mph could cause injuries, while there is a chance of power cuts and damage to buildings.

    The strongest winds will initially affect the west of Scotland - probably around the Western Isles and the coasts or Argyll - and the storm will then travel eastwards through Sunday.

    Transport Scotland has said road, rail, air and ferry services are all likely to be affected by the conditions.

    At the time of writing, 14 ferry services from CalMac have been cancelled. Anyone planning on travelling this weekend is urged to check before leaving home.

  5. Irish Sea ferry crossings cancelled as Storm Boelo hits

    Ralph Hewitt
    BBC News NI

    Photo of the entrance to the Port of Belfast, a lorry driving towards itGetty Images

    Sailings between Belfast, Liverpool and Cairnryan, near Stranraer, have been cancelled today, as well as those from Dublin and Holyhead, due to the bad weather.

    The Met Office has a yellow weather warning for wind across Northern Ireland which started at 10:00 BST, while the north coast of the country will be placed under an amber warning from 21:00.

    Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland’s meteorological service Met Éireann has issued several Status Yellow and Orange wind warnings for a number of counties.

    Belfast International Airport and Dublin Airport are advising passengers to check with their airline for the latest status of their flight.

    In preparation for the storm, Northern Ireland’s Department of Infrastructure has said their teams have been checking and clearing road gullies, monitoring river levels and tidal surges, and deploying a portion of temporary flood defences.

    • You can read more about the warnings in place for Northern Ireland in our story

  6. As Storm Boelo hits UK, thousands still without power after Austen

    Storm Boelo is beginning to bring heavy winds and rain to the UK - but thousands of people are still being affected by Storm Austen, which arrived on Friday.

    As of 09:45 BST, 5,774 properties in England and Wales have power cuts.

    The majority are in south-west England - the area most affected by Austen yesterday.

    This National Grid map shows the location of power cuts - orange markers represent a singe "incident" (usually involving multiple properties), while blue circles represent multiple incidents

    This National Grid map shows the location of power cuts - orange markers represent a singe "incident" (usually involving multiple properties), while blue circles represent multiple incidents

  7. Yellow wind warning kicks in for Northern Ireland

    It's 10:00, which means the yellow wind warning over Northern Ireland is now in effect.

    It will remain in place until 12:00 tomorrow.

    In an hour's time, a yellow rain warning will also come into effect across Wales and large parts of England.

    According to the Met Office, a yellow warning for wind means people should: "Prepare to protect your property and people from injury. Check for loose items outside your home and plan how you could secure them. Items include: bins, garden furniture, trampolines, tents, sheds, and fences."

  8. Met Office issues fresh yellow rain warning
    Breaking

    The Met Office has just issued another fresh weather warning - this time a yellow rain warning covering parts of Scotland.

    It kicks in from 21:00 BST tonight, and is in place until 15:00 GMT tomorrow.

    The areas affected are:

    • Central, Tayside & Fife
    • Grampian
    • Highlands & Eilean Siar

    This means a total of six warnings are now in place across the UK.

    Map of the UK with most of Scotland, Wales and southern Englan under a yellow weather warning, Northern Ireland under an amber and yellow wind warnings. Scotland and parts of northern England under an amber warning for windMet Office

  9. More on the new weather warnings from the Met Office

    We can now bring you more details on the two new weather warnings issued by the Met Office.

    Amber wind warning: This is in place in north-west Northern Ireland from 21:00 BST today to 10:00 tomorrow, impacting Antrim and Londonderry. The wind warning issued previously for Scotland has been extended south across northern England into northern Wales - it will kick in at 21:00.

    Yellow rain warning: This is in place from 11:00 to 23:00 today. It affects Wales and large parts of England, including the South East, the North West, the South West, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.

    These are in addition to the three wind warnings (two yellow and one amber) that were already in place.

    Map showing Met Office weather warningsMet Office

  10. Met Office issues fresh weather warnings for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
    Breaking

    The Met Office has now issued a new amber wind warning for parts of Northern Ireland, as well as a fresh Yellow rain warning for Wales and parts of England.

    We'll bring you more on this in our next post.

  11. Flooding expected in Scarborough and part of Staffordshire

    A picture of the Scarborough city, with the Scarborough Grand Hotel in the foreground illuminated by the early morning sunshine. A Man in a black coat walks a dog on the beach on the left-side of the framemrbyorkshire/BBC Weather Watchers

    The Environment Agency warns further flooding is "expected" in Scarborough later today. For now, there's little cloud in the sky

    Three flood warnings and 14 flood alerts are in place across England - a flood warning indicates flooding is "expected", while an alert means it is "possible".

    Flooding expected

    • At Foreshore Road in Scarborough, where high tides already caused flooding on Friday evening - leaving some vehicles stranded and forcing roads to close
    • High tides were also expected to cause flooding at Sandside in Scarborough and people are encouraged to avoid coastal roads, footpaths and carparks at both locations
    • From yesterday evening, rising river levels were expected to cause flooding at Saredon Brook in Standeford, an area in Staffordshire

    Flooding possible

    • Coastal areas of Seaford seafront
    • Hunstanton coast in Norfolk
    • North Sea coast from Whitby to Filey
    • River Alt, Formby to Huyton
    • River Cole, Dorcan Brook and South Marston Brook
    • River Maun in Nottinghamshire
    • River Sow and River Penk
    • Somerset coast at Porlock Weir
    • Parts of Stoke on Trent
    • Parts on Stone in Staffordshire
    • The tidal River Waveney from Ellingham to Breydon Water
    • The tidal River Yare from Thorpe St Andrew to Breydon Water
    • Upper Tame
    • Upper Tame at Sandwell Valley
    Map showing flood warnings and alerts in Englandgov.uk

  12. Yellow flood warnings across large parts of Scotland today

    The Scottish Environment Protection Agency warns that "sustained and heavy rain" is expected to affect parts of the nation throughout the weekend.

    On Saturday, a Yellow flood warning is in place for the following locations:

    • Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City
    • Ayrshire and Arran
    • Central Scotland
    • Dumfries and Galloway
    • Dundee and Angus
    • Edinburgh and Lothians
    • Fife
    • Scottish Borders
    • Tayside
    • West Central Scotland

    A few areas will remain under this warning on Sunday, including:

    • Argyll and Bute
    • Ayrshire and Arran
    • Dumfries and Galloway
    Sunrise over sea front in MusselburghSend in the Clouds / BBC Weather Watchers

    There are various flood and weather warnings across Scotland for later today - but it was a relatively calm start in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, this morning

  13. Strong winds and heavy rain expected to cause rail disruption in Scotland

    Passengers walk along the main area of Glasgow Central station, some of the are carrying bags or pushing trolleys aroundGetty Images

    Storm Boelo is expected to disrupt travel around Scotland today and on Sunday

    We can now bring you some more details on the cancelled train services ScotRail has already announced. They are:

    • Glasgow Central – Ayr line will close between Kilwinning and Ayr from 21:00 on Saturday, after which time a half-hourly shuttle service will operate between Glasgow Central and Kilwinning
    • Glasgow Queen Street – Oban / Mallaig line will close between Fort William and Mallaig and between Crianlarich and Oban from around 22:00
    • Inverness – Kyle of Lochalsh line will close between Kyle of Lochalsh and Achnashellach from the start of service on Sunday
    • Inverness – Wick / Thurso line will close between Helmsdale and Wick / Thurso from the start of service on Sunday

  14. When do we see the most named storms?

    Chris Fawkes
    BBC Weather presenter

    Bar chart showing Total number of named storms in the UK by month since 2015. Months along the x axis and number of storms up the x axis. The stormiest month is December, followed by January and February. May is the only month to have no named storms.BBC Weather

    The winter months of December, January and February typically produce the highest number of UK storms

    Although named storms can affect the UK at any time of the year, analysis shows they are much less common in spring and early summer.

    The only month with no named storms in the eleven years that we've been naming storms in the UK is May.

    The chances of seeing a storm increases from late summer and throughout autumn with the peak of the season arriving in our winter months.

    This increase in storminess is why the storm-naming season begins in September each year.

    In about half of the years since 2015, the first storm arrived after 1 November.

  15. South-west battled wet and windy weather as Storm Austen hit

    The UK is bracing for its second storm in two days, with the north hunkering down for Storm Boelo as the south-west recovers from Storm Austen.

    Here are some pictures from yesterday when Austen hit southern England, parts of Wales, and the Channel Islands, with gusts of up to 84mph recorded in Jersey.

    Members of the public stand on rocks beside the breaking waves at Portland Bill, southern England on 23 October 2026, as Storm Austen brings strong winds and heavy rainGetty Images

    Waves break at Portland Bill in Dorset

    Pieces of the West Pier in Brighton falling off into the sea on 23 October 2026PA Media

    Pieces of Brighton's iconic West Pier fell off into the sea during the wet and windy weather

    Tree fallen onto fence in Gorey on the island of Jersey

    Trees fell and fences were damaged by high winds in the Channel Islands

  16. How to prepare for power cuts

    A man in a yellow chequered shirt uses a torch to shine light on a plastic power boxGetty Images

    As well as travel disruptions being expected from Storm Boelo, some properties in areas under warning could be left without power.

    Power cuts can plunge communities into darkness and stop usual services from working, but here are some helpful tips on how to navigate an outage:

    • Candles and torches can replace lights during power cuts, although it's important to remember naked flames can pose a fire risk
    • Keep cash on hand as shops may not accept phone and card payments when the power is out
    • Tinned food and gas stoves will help keep you fed as microwaves, air fryers and some hobs and ovens demand electricity
    • Powerbanks can help keep your phone charged, allowing you to see the latest updates

    You can report a power cut online, or by calling 105, which is a free service in England, Scotland and Wales.

  17. Hundreds of properties still without power in south-west England

    Hundreds of homes and businesses are still without power after Storm Austen battered parts of the country yesterday.

    National Grid's map shows a concentration of power cuts in south-west England, the area worst affected by the storm.

    In Cornwall, one incident near Truro has left 478 properties without power, while another near Penryn is affecting 127 properties.

    One incident in Dorset is impacting 141 properties, with another 85 properties in Exmoor still without power. Both of these are not estimated to be resolved until 22:00 tonight, according to National Grid's website.

    These are just a few examples from the swarm of red and blue incident dots seen on the map.

    Map showing power cut incidents in south-west EnglandNational Grid

  18. Storm Boelo expected to cause widespread travel disruption across Scotland and north of England

    A ScotRail blue train alighted at a stationGetty Images

    ScotRail says speed restrictions will be in place on some routes, with some services not running and cancellations possible as Storm Boelo hits

    National Rail is warning that Storm Boelo may impact journeys and encouraging people to check before they travel.

    It says:

    • TransPennine Express is advising against anything but essential travel today and on Sunday - while there are no planned changes to the timetable today, speed restrictions will be in place across Scotland. Widespread disruption is expected on Sunday
    • Avanti West Coast is advising people to avoid travelling north of Preston on Sunday
    • LNER is advising against travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen on Sunday
    • Northern will see a reduction in the number of trains operating on several routes today
    • Speed restrictions will be in place on certain ScotRail routes today, some services will not run and there will be cancellations of revisions across the entire network from 21:00 tonight - we've got more on Scottish travel disruption here
    • CrossCountry says services travelling to or from areas north of Newcastle will face a speed restriction today and tomorrow
    • Although there is no Met Office weather warning over Wales today, Transport for Wales is warning of weather-related disruption to its network - Wales was hit by Storm Austen yesterday

    Services in other parts of the country including Great Western are also warning there could be ongoing disruption today because of Storm Austen.

  19. Is it unusual to see two storms so close together?

    Chris Fawkes
    BBC Weather presenter

    It's not unusual to get storms so close together, in fact they quite often arrive in clusters.

    A strong jet stream is needed to rapidly develop powerful wind storms. The process of creating such storms involves shifting warmer air northwards and cooler air southwards across vast areas of the Atlantic.

    These temperature contrasts can provide a fertile environment for new low pressure systems to develop and if these subsequently get steered beneath a developmental area of a powerful jet stream, they can rapidly develop to create a new named storm with damaging winds.

  20. How much disruption was caused by Storm Austen

    A public safety sign is placed on the beach near Brighton’s West Pier which was further damaged when a section of the remaining structure broke away today during Storm Austen, in Brighton, Britain, October 23, 2026Reuters

    Storm Austen caused major disruption across parts of England and Wales on Friday - here's a recap:

    • Thousands of homes were left without power, and gusts of up to 84mph (135km/h) were recorded in Jersey
    • In Brighton, dramatic footage captured the collapse of part of the iconic West Pier as it fell into the sea
    • All schools on Jersey and Guernsey closed for the day and some in Cornwall were closed or started later than normal
    • Transport was also disrupted, with some ferry services between the UK and France cancelled and trains cancelled and delayed
    • Jersey Airport said flights wouldn't be running until at least 17:00 on Friday, while departure boards at Exeter airport also showed multiple cancellations
    The damage caused to a car hit by a tree in Horsham, West Sussex, on FridayRuss Slater

    The damage caused to a car hit by a tree in Horsham, West Sussex, on Friday