Danger to life warning from 100mph winds
Flights have been delayed, roads closed and ferry services cancelled as 100mph winds from Storm Éowyn pose a danger to life in parts of the UK on Friday morning.
As PA Media reports, rail services and flights have been axed, with rare red weather warnings issued for Scotland and Northern Ireland as Storm Éowyn is likely to damage buildings, uproot trees and cause power cuts, the Met Office said.
Train operator ScotRail suspended all services across Scotland on Friday, saying it “would not be safe to operate passenger services due to forecast weather conditions”.
Dozens of flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were cancelled on Friday morning due to ongoing weather conditions, while Belfast International warned of significant disruption to flights.
A number of train companies including Avanti West Coast, Lumo, CrossCountry and Grand Central have also told customers not to travel on routes across parts of north Wales, Scotland and northern England with no services running.
Passengers and motorists in areas covered by red and amber weather warnings have been told to avoid travel “unless absolutely essential”.
We’ll bring you more as it develops this morning.
Key events
Approx. 150,000 premises in Ireland at risk of water supply issues
Approximately 150,000 premises in Ireland are at risk of water supply issues due to power outages affecting the water network, reports the PA news agency.
Irish Water said the majority of these customers should still have water due to storage in reservoirs.
The agency said significant disruption is expected due to Storm Éowyn, adding that its crews will begin restoring supply when it is safe to do so.
In a statement, it added:
In areas where supply has been disrupted, most properties should have adequate storage in their attic tanks for hygiene purposes for at least 24 hours.
However customers are urged to conserve water where possible in order to protect supply while the outages are resolved.”
Here are some more images of disruption caused by Storm Éowyn today:
Lisa O’Carroll
Reporting from Dublin:
Met Éireann have a radar picture showing Storm Éowyn barrelling over Northern Ireland, the northern half of Ireland and Scotland at 8.30am on Friday.
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Scotland’s deputy first minister has urged Scots in the central belt to follow the advice not to travel.
Appearing on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Kate Forbes said:
It is so important that people follow Police Scotland’s advice not to travel because if people stay at home and don’t travel then it means they don’t invite that risk to themselves.”
Forbes also warned that recovery from Storm Éowyn could “take longer than we all hope”.
“It is important our expectations are managed by how quickly things can return to normal and there may well be continuing disruption tomorrow,” she said
More than 715,000 homes and premises without power in Ireland as ESB describe outage as ‘unprecedented’
Lisa O’Carroll
Reporting from Dublin:
More than 715,000 homes are without power in Ireland.
The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said the power cut was “unprecedented” and would only get worse.
It said:
We anticipate significant further outages as Storm Éowyn continues to track across the country.
Extreme, damaging and destructive winds associated with Storm Éowyn have continued to cause widespread and extensive damage to the electricity network across the country with over 715,000 homes, farms and businesses (as at 8am) without power.”
Shannonside Radio covering the midlands and border counties is reporting multiple incidents including a roof blown off a house in Fourmilehouse in county Roscommon. The occupants have not been injured, it reported.
Here are some pictures related to Storm Éowyn via the newswires:
Train operator Northern said many of its routes are closed because of severe weather.
Some lines are blocked between Manchester Oxford Road and Warrington Central because of a fallen tree.
Services on these routes are also being disrupted by severe weather:
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Between Bradford Forster Square and Ilkley.
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Bradford Forster Square and Skipton.
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Leeds and Bradford Forster Square.
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Leeds and Ilkley; and Leeds and Skipton.
PA news agency analysis of flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows at least 334 flights have been cancelled across airports in Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
According to the PA news agency, this means about 50,000 passengers have been affected.
The number of cancellations for each airport, per PA’s count, is:
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Belfast International: 16 departures and 16 arrivals
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Belfast City: 23 departures and 20 arrivals
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Edinburgh: 74 departures and 72 arrivals
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Glasgow: 40 departures and 41 arrivals
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Aberdeen: 25 departures and 25 arrivals
This breakdown includes 18 domestic flights that were scheduled to depart from one of the airports and arrive at another. These were only counted once in the total of 334, notes the PA news agency.
Irish meteorological service, Met Éireann, has published a map of wind observations at 7am across Ireland.
Additionally, in its post on X, the weather service noted the maximum gusts and highest mean speeds recorded at 7am. You can see those below:
Wind observations at 7am, excluding the offline stations
Max gusts (km/h):
– Knock 141 (Red)
– Finner Donegal 133 (Red)Highest mean speeds (Red)
– Finner Donegal 94
– Malin Head 89
– Knock Airport 89 #StormÉowyn pic.twitter.com/gghfpcZE3W— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 24, 2025
Police declare major incident in Northern Ireland
Police in Northern Ireland have declared a major incident and said they expect the strongest winds in the region since the Boxing Day storm in 1998 which caused widespread disruption.
Speaking to media in Belfast on Thursday afternoon first minister, Michelle O’Neill, and deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, urged people to stay at home where they can and check on vulnerable people.
O’Neill described an “evolving situation” which they are “very closely monitoring”. “But the key message is to stay safe, to look after yourself, to look after your family and to look after your friends and check in on those people who are more vulnerable,” she said, according to the PA news agency.
Little-Pengelly added that experienced emergency teams are ready to respond during the expected severe weather in Northern Ireland on Friday.
“A red alert has been issued for the entire of Northern Ireland,” she said, adding:
This is highly unusual, this means between 7am and 2pm tomorrow there is a likelihood of widespread disruption, danger to life and damage to buildings, and our strong advice and the advice of the PSNI is to stay at home if at all possible.”
More than 500,000 homes without power in Ireland
Lisa O’Carroll
Reporting from Dublin:
More than 500,000 homes are without power in Ireland with gusts of 183kph (113mph) recorded in Galway.
The entire island of Ireland is under a red weather alert with Met Éireann warning that the winds lashing the country have not reached their strongest yet.
People have been advised to stay indoors with a risk of death or destruction from falling trees and debris.
Force 10 to 12 winds are battering the coast with winds moving north across the morning. Northern Ireland is currently under a severe wind warning.
Multiple incidents of trees blocking roads have been recorded. One passenger who tried their luck heading to Shannon airport for a flight that was cancelled said the motorway was deserted apart from fallen branches everywhere.
Public urged to stay at home as Ireland braces for arrival of Storm Éowyn
Residents across Ireland have been urged to stay at home due to Storm Éowyn, reports the PA news agency.
The top-level red warning for wind is in place in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland from early on Friday morning.
Schools and colleges across Ireland are set to close and public transport came to a halt, reports the PA news agency, amid powerful gusts with warnings of danger to life, fallen electric lines, damaged infrastructure and widespread power outages.
Dublin airport announced more than 110 scheduled departures and 110 arrivals had been cancelled by airlines for Friday.
Met Éireann reported the mean wind speed record of 81mph set in 1945 at Foynes County Limerick had been broken during the storm. The weather service said gusts of up to 108mph had been recorded at Mace Head off Ireland’s west coast by 4am on Friday.
The storm has caused extensive and widespread damage to the electricity network, with power outages nationwide affecting 560,000 homes, farms and businesses.
Irish state-owned electricity company, ESB, says it expects significant further outages as Storm Éowyn moves across the country.
The chair of Ireland’s national emergency coordination group, Keith Leonard, said Storm Éowyn will be one of the most severe storms Ireland has seen. “It is going to be a damaging, dangerous and destructive weather event,” he said in Dublin on Friday.
He added:
The forecasted winds will bring severe conditions which will constitute a risk to life and property.
Our most important message today is that everybody needs to shelter in place for the duration of all red warnings.
We are likely to see significant and widespread power outages, so I would encourage everyone to prepare ahead. Make sure phones, torches and laptops are fully charged.”
In a statement at the Scottish parliament, first minister, John Swinney, said:
The Met Office advice is clear, the potential impacts include danger to life, structural damage to property and transport and power disruptions.
We have to be clear, people should not travel.”
Meanwhile, Calmac Ferries and Western Ferries announced Friday’s planned sailings had been cancelled.
Glasgow and Edinburgh airports saw dozens of flights cancelled on Friday morning due to bad weather conditions.
Red warning comes into effect in Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland described the storm as an “exceptional weather event” and said it was expected to bring the strongest winds seen in the region since 1998.
Red warnings for wind have been issued by the Met Office for much of Northern Ireland from 7am until 2pm on Friday.
You can check out the Met Office map of warnings across the UK here.
Scottish motorists told not to travel
Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Hilary Sloan said: “Our advice to any road user is not travelling, and that’s really the message we want to get across today.
It’s really unusual for us to have a red weather warning and that advice is in place for the duration of that warning.”
The Met Office red warning in Scotland runs from 10am to 5pm and covers the central belt including Glasgow and Edinburgh, stretching north on the west coast to Jura in Argyll and Bute and south to Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway.
Fastest ever wind recorded in Ireland, forecaster says
A wind speed of 114mph brought by Storm Éowyn has been recorded in Ireland, the fastest since records began, forecaster Met Éireann said.
Danger to life warning from 100mph winds
Flights have been delayed, roads closed and ferry services cancelled as 100mph winds from Storm Éowyn pose a danger to life in parts of the UK on Friday morning.
As PA Media reports, rail services and flights have been axed, with rare red weather warnings issued for Scotland and Northern Ireland as Storm Éowyn is likely to damage buildings, uproot trees and cause power cuts, the Met Office said.
Train operator ScotRail suspended all services across Scotland on Friday, saying it “would not be safe to operate passenger services due to forecast weather conditions”.
Dozens of flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were cancelled on Friday morning due to ongoing weather conditions, while Belfast International warned of significant disruption to flights.
A number of train companies including Avanti West Coast, Lumo, CrossCountry and Grand Central have also told customers not to travel on routes across parts of north Wales, Scotland and northern England with no services running.
Passengers and motorists in areas covered by red and amber weather warnings have been told to avoid travel “unless absolutely essential”.
We’ll bring you more as it develops this morning.
