Despite a sunny and clear-skied start to the day, the Isle of Wight is just hours away from heavy rain and strong winds with a yellow weather warning set to come into force from 15:00.
As first reported by Island Echo on Wednesday, forecasters at IW Met Service have issued a warning for strong winds as the first strong low-pressure system of the Autumn heads our way.
Gusts of up to 60mph are expected along the English Channel coast and on high land later today and into Saturday, which will be accompanied by spells of persistent and heavy rain.
Elsewhere on the Island, gusts of 40-50mph can be expected.
By mid-afternoon, the rain clouds will be rolling in with the worst of the weather expected early this evening. The weather warning will remain in place until 02:00 tomorrow morning, however.
Islanders are warned that tree debris will affect roads and pavements, with rather difficult driving conditions to be expected around the coast due to driving rain.
Large waves of up to 12ft around windward coasts will create hazardous conditions for small watercraft and this could lead to disruption on cross-Solent services.
Wightlink is already warning that adjustments have been made to the timetable on its Fishbourne-Portsmouth car ferry for tonight. The operator has moved some customers to alternative sailings on the route in order to prevent the weather causing any disruption.
Jamie Russell, Chief Forecaster at IW Met Service, says:
“The warning is based upon the Summer warning threshold (which reverts back to the winter threshold on 1st October), meaning that this warning is based on somewhat lower wind speeds than those seen during the Autumn/Winter period. However, we have taken this into consideration and only issued a warning for the most exposed parts of the island”.
Don’t panic there’s a storm coming. Which they have every autumn since the beginning of time…….
That’s right Tony, but it won’t stop the climate change warriors banging on their very boring bandwagon as usual.
Which would you rather be, Paul: drowned, roasted or just bored?
The article has got nothing to do with climate change – in fact it says that it’s only relevant because we’re still on summer thresholds. Whose banging on about the the same boring bandwagon? Keep living in dreamland pretending the blindingly obvious isn’t there, until the the sand you buried your head in gets too hot!
The climate has been looking after itself for years.
It does not need the do good Brigade interfering with it.
Dear Southern Water,
How are we getting on with the hosepipe ban???