Amber weather warning issued as 95mph gales set to hit Scotland

Weather warnings for the first named storm of the season have been upgraded to amber for large parts of Scotland.

The Met Office warned that Storm Amy will bring a spell of "damaging winds" on Friday evening and night with gusts of 95mph possible.

A wind warning has been upgraded to amber for the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney, parts of the South West of Scotland and Moray between 5pm on Friday and 9am on Saturday, with a risk of danger to life.

Yellow warnings of rain are in force for Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Thursday and for much of the UK on Friday and Saturday when wind alerts are also in force.

Forecasters warn that during the amber warning period there could be transport disruption, power cuts and damage to buildings while flying debris could pose a danger to life.

The Met Office said: "Storm Amy will bring a spell of damaging winds, initially in western areas during Friday evening before gradually transferring north-eastwards through the night and into early Saturday.

"During this period, wind gusts of 60-70 mph are likely fairly widely and may exceed 95mph in more exposed areas. This is likely to lead to travel and power disruption."

A yellow warning of heavy rain is in force across Northern Ireland and western Scotland until late on Thursday evening.

Forecasters warn that persistent, heavy rain may lead to transport disruption and flooding.

A yellow warning of rain has been issued for all of Scotland and much of northern Englandbetween noon and midnight on Friday, and expands to cover northern England, Yorkshire and part of Wales from 3pm.

Yellow warnings of wind will be in force across Scotland and much of northern England and Wales from 3pm on Friday until midnight on Saturday while Northern Ireland will be covered by a wind warning between 2pm on Friday and midday on Saturday.

Martin Thomson, from Transport Scotland, said: "Storm Amy is set to bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of Scotland, and we expect to see disruption to the transport network in the warning areas.

"The rain and wind will bring difficult driving conditions, such as reduced visibility and surface water, and are also likely to affect the ferry and rail networks, so it's important to plan your journey ahead of time.

"Motorists should use the Traffic Scotland website before they set off to make sure that their route is available and you should check with your operator if you are planning to travel on trains, ferries and flights."

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), the distribution network operator for the north of Scotland, said it is preparing for the storm - with hundreds of additional staff ready to support the response.

SSEN's head of customer operations for the north of Scotland, Nik Wheeler, said: "Storm Amy is set to be a disruptive autumn storm, and we've prepared accordingly, with extra teams ready to reconfigure the network, fix faults, and support our customers.

"Our enlarged teams will be working throughout the weekend to do everything we can to minimise disruption.

"The forecast gales are some of the most severe and sustained we've seen in recent years, and storm-force winds of this prolonged nature can pose challenges when it comes to fixing faults, as we can only work at height when conditions become safe for us to do so.

"Customers can be reassured that while we'll repair the network as soon as we can, we'll also be keeping them informed and supported in a range of other ways, including co-ordinating welfare checks and hot meal provision for those communities facing extended outages."