Yellow weather warning issued from Friday to Sunday morning

The met office have issued a yellow warning for Storm Darragh from 15:00 Friday to 06:00 Sunday following areas:

    Darlington
    Durham
    Gateshead
    Hartlepool
    Middlesbrough
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    North Tyneside
    Northumberland
    Redcar and Cleveland
    South Tyneside
    Stockton-on-Tees
    Sunderland

Storm Darragh is likely to cross Ireland late Friday, then parts of England and Wales on Saturday, clearing to the east of England on Saturday night or early Sunday.

Darragh could bring a period of strong winds to much of the warning area. Winds will initially be from a southerly direction, but the strongest winds are likely as the low clears away when northerly or northwesterly winds may quite widely gust to around 40-50 mph inland but locally could gust in excess of 60 mph.

Around coasts, winds may gust to 60-70 mph, perhaps locally nearer 80 mph. The wind may cause disruption to travel, with difficult driving conditions likely.

The duration of the strongest winds in any one location is likely to be less than 24 hours, but this warning is for a more extended period to cover the passage of the strong winds over the whole country.

These start in the west on Friday evening, and clear from the east coasts of England and Scotland early on Sunday.