Severe gales and heavy rain will sweep across parts of the UK beginning Thursday night as Storm Austen approaches from the Atlantic. According to BBC News, the Met Office has issued a yellow wind warning ahead of the storm, which will take effect at midnight on Friday and remain in force until noon. Damage to buildings, transport disruption and power cuts are all possible as the system moves through.
This marks the arrival of the first named storm of the autumn season. The Sun reported that the yellow wind warning covers 38 local authority areas spanning south Wales, south-west England, parts of south-east England and Herefordshire. The storm name was chosen by Met Éireann to honour Austen H. Nagle, the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service, appointed in 1936.
Over the coming days, heavy rain will spread across the UK with strengthening winds developing on Wednesday around west Wales and southern England. From late Thursday onwards, a rapidly deepening area of low pressure will move in from the Atlantic, bringing heavy rain across England and Wales through Thursday night accompanied by increasingly powerful winds.
Wind gusts of up to 70mph are anticipated across the warning area, likely to cause damage to buildings, travel disruption and the risk of power cuts. More widely, gusts of 50-60mph will be experienced around west Wales and through southern England. The Met Office noted there was uncertainty about where the strongest winds would occur. The strongest winds will ease from the south-west later on Friday morning, though the rest of England and Wales will remain blustery with heavy rain at times throughout the day. Scotland and Northern Ireland will largely escape the impacts of Storm Austen.
What happens after Storm Austen clears?
Storm Austen will move away into the North Sea later on Friday. A quiet spell with clear skies is expected overnight into Saturday, but another deep area of low pressure will move in for the start of the weekend. This second system is not expected to be as severe as Austen and therefore is unlikely to be formally named by meteorological services.
The second low-pressure system will head towards Scotland, bringing gusts of 70-80mph to western Scotland with potential delays or cancellations to ferries and restrictions on bridges. It will turn windy elsewhere across the UK throughout Saturday with heavy rain spreading eastward for most areas. Sunday will become drier but will remain very windy, particularly towards the north east of Scotland.
Context: The 2026-27 storm season
The naming of Storm Austen comes as the UK continues to experience increasingly active Atlantic weather patterns. Earlier in October, the UK had awaited its first named storm as autumn remained unusually calm, with high pressure and a displaced jet stream keeping Atlantic lows at bay. However, forecasters had predicted wetter and windier conditions ahead. The 2026-27 storm-naming season began on 1 September and runs through 31 August 2027, with the list jointly prepared by the Met Office, Met Éireann and the Netherlands' KNMI.
Key Facts
- Storm Austen will bring wind gusts of up to 70mph to southern UK regions, with 50-60mph gusts more widely across west Wales and southern England
- The yellow wind warning covers 38 local authority areas and runs from midnight Friday to noon Friday
- A second area of low pressure will bring further wet and windy weather on Saturday, particularly affecting western Scotland with gusts of 70-80mph
- Scotland and Northern Ireland will largely avoid the impacts of Storm Austen itself
