Urgent warning as Storm Jocelyn to bring 70mph winds just hours after Storm Isha killed three & sparked travel chaos

BRITS have been warned to brace themselves for Storm Jocelyn which is due to hit these shores just hours after Isha caused havoc.

Hot on the heels of Storm Isha which brought winds hitting 107mph last night, Storm Jocelyn will bring windy conditions right across the UK with northern areas likely to be worst affected. 

The Met Office is predicting winds could hit a high of 70mph in exposed coastal areas.

The UK weather forecaster currently has yellow and amber weather warnings in place until January 24.

Storm Jocelyn is the tenth named storm to hit the UK since the season began in September.

Met Eireann named the latest incoming storm.

Storms are given a name when they post a risk to people and are named beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet.

The record number of named storms in one year is when the Met Office began the practice in 2015/16, with Storm Katie being the eleventh and final storm of that season.

If there are two more named storms between next week and August, this year will mark a new record.

The first time the letter J was reached was in March 2016, with Storm Jake.

The furthest a storm season has reached in the alphabet is the letter K, when Storm Katie was named, also in March 2016.

The Met Office began naming storms in 2015.

Last year's storm season, which ran from September 2022 to August 2023, made it only as far as the letter B, with Storm Betty in August.

By contrast, this year's season has seen storms named in every month so far: Agnes in September 2023. Babet in October. Ciaran and Debi in November. Elin, Fergus and Gerrit in December and Henk, Isha and Jocelyn in January 2024.

It is rare, but not unheard of, for the UK to experience a sequence of storms across a handful of months.

There were 11 storms between November 2015 and March 2016, the first season in which storms were named, beginning with Abigail and ending with Katie.

And there were at least 12 major winter storms from mid-December 2013 to mid-February 2014, "the stormiest period of weather the UK has experienced for at least 20 years", according Met Office records.

Not all of the alphabet is used when naming storms.

The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are omitted, in line with convention established by the US National Hurricane Centre.

It means the storm names still available for the current season are Kathleen, Lilian, Minnie, Nicholas, Olga, Piet, Regina, Stuart, Tamiko, Vincent and Walid.

It comes after the tragic news an 84-year-old man died after a Hyundai crashed into a fallen tree on the A905 in Fife, eastern Scotland at 11.45pm last night.

The elderly man was the front-seat passenger in the car, whose other occupants were not injured.

Emergency services pronounced the man dead at the scene near Grangemouth, and are now appealing for dashcam footage.

A man in his sixties died in a crash involving two vans and a fallen tree in Limavady, County Londonerry at around 9.45pm.

In Ireland, a man in his forties also died in a storm-related crash after his motor skidded on a flooded road in County Mayo.

British Airways said that it cancelled 40 flights across the UK as winds peaked at 99mph.

Planes struggled to land at several airports, with one Ryanair flight from Manchester to Dublin diverted to Beauvais in northern France.

Thousands of people have been left without power as Storm Isha also brought disruption to electricity and transport networks.

The storm battered the UK with heavy rain and gusts of up to 99mph.

Northern Ireland Electricity Networks said 45,000 customers were without power, while Electricity North West also said thousands of properties in north-west England had lost their supply.

Widespread power cuts in the Republic of Ireland were affecting more than 170,000 properties.

Fallen trees have affected transport, with Traffic Scotland reporting stretches of the M9 and M74 were among roads closed throughout the night, while the A1 southbound was closed at Thorntonloch due to an overturned lorry.

High winds forced the closure of the Tay Road Bridge, M48 Severn Bridge and the A66 in Durham and Cumbria between the A1(M) and the M6, while the Humber Bridge, A19 Tees Flyover and A628 Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire were among stretches closed to high-sided vehicles.

There was traffic chaos in the centre of Oldham as well after the front of a building collapsed onto the street in strong winds.

A section of Yorkshire Street was sealed off on Sunday afternoon after there were reports a "building was in danger of collapsing".

ScotRail services have been suspended since 7pm on Sunday and are not expected to resume until around noon on Monday as dozens of lines are closed due to fallen trees and flooding.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "Hundreds of engineers are already out, armed with chainsaws and cherry pickers to remove and repair.

"Once done, route-proving trains will be dispatched before passenger services can restart.

"It's been a wild night, but passengers and railway staff have been kept safe and we will work tirelessly to get the railway back on its feet as quickly as we can."

Lines in England and Wales have been cleared and "a good service is expected in most areas" on Monday, he added.

Network Rail said the remains of a garden shed were blown on to the line at Bellgrove station in Glasgow and a small fire broke out after a tree fell on overhead wires in Gartcosh, Cumbernauld.

At least 10 trees fell on the line between Garrowhill and Easterhouse near Glasgow and damaged overhead lines.

A wall and fence were blown on to the line at Glasgow Queen Street, while the River Tay breached safety limits at the Dalguise Viaduct on the Highland Mainline, forcing the overnight watchman to abandon the site.

East Midlands Railway has said delays and alterations to its services are "likely", while no LNER trains will run north of Newcastle until noon.

Avanti West Coast also warned of changes and delays today.