Storm Antoni has been named by the Met Office with a low-pressure system set to bring strong winds and rain for many on Saturday.
From late Friday night and into Saturday (5 August), Storm Antoni will bring strong winds and a spell of heavy rain which has resulted in the issuing of weather warnings including for locally here across Northern Ireland.
The Province will be the first to see the influence of this low-pressure system, with a warning for rain in force from the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Met Office today updated a weather warning issued as the storm approaches Northern Ireland. The warning is effective from 12:00am to 11am on Saturday morning.
Heavy and persistent rain will spread across Northern Ireland during Friday night before clearing from the west Saturday late morning and early afternoon.
Widely, totals of 20-30mm of rain are possible with the heaviest and most persistent rain expected in the south, and perhaps also east of the country, affecting parts of County Down and Belfast. Here 40-60mm is possible in some places with perhaps as much as 20-30mm of this falling in 3 or 4 hours.
Meanwhile, 70mm may fall over parts of the Mourne Mountains. In the south, wet weather will be accompanied by quite windy conditions, gusts of 40 to 45 mph possible in some coastal parts of County Down during the morning.
Met Office Chief Meteorologist Steve Willington said:
“Storm Antoni will bring some potentially disruptive weather on Saturday as it moves from west to east. Northern Ireland is likely to see some of the highest rainfall totals, with 40-60mm falling in some spots, but 20-30 more widely.
"Busy travel networks at this time of year and the possibility of people having made plans to be outside have resulted in the system meeting our criteria for naming, with a strong chance of disruption for those within the warning areas.”
Warnings highlight potential transport disruption and the chance of some power cuts occurring.
Any sign of warmer weather?
After a month of largely unsettled weather for the UK, there are some tentative signs of a change, albeit perhaps only briefly, in the dominant weather pattern for the UK later next week.
Steve Willington explained:
“For the latter half of next week, there are some signals of a shift in the jet stream which may allow for high pressure to build in for southern areas of the UK, increasing the likelihood of some drier weather for a time. However, at this range, the details are quite uncertain and there’s still a chance of some rain for areas further north. As always, details will become clearer with a shorter lead time.”