UK faces high winds and floods as Storm Herminia rolls in

More high winds and heavy rain are expected on Sunday as a new storm approaches the UK.

The warning came as a 19-year-old man was confirmed to have died after he was hit by a tree while driving in East Ayrshire on Friday during Storm Éowyn. He is the second death in the storm, with a 20-year-old man killed in County Donegal Ireland on Friday.

Strong winds hit the south-west of England on Sunday, with Predannack, in south Cornwall, recording gusts of 80mph from the new storm, named Herminia.

The Met Office has issued four yellow weather warnings, saying injuries and “danger to life” were a possibility.

Storm Herminia was named by the Spanish weather service Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) on Friday and is now closing in on the UK, BBC Weather said.

Forecasters said the storm brings a large risk of disruptive weather, especially across the southern half of the UK, which largely escaped Éowyn.

The Met Office has issued three yellow weather warnings for wind and one for heavy rain on Sunday.

The first for wind covers parts of Cornwall and south Devon, where gusts of 55mph (88.5km/h) to 65mph are expected in most areas. Gusts of up to 75mph are possible in coastal and hilly areas.

A second warns of wind speeds of 50mph to 60mph inland and 70mph on the coast for southwest England, Wales, much of the Midlands and the North West coastline, including parts of Merseyside and Lancashire.

“Southwestern areas certainly bearing the brunt this time in terms of the most unsettled conditions,” Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said.

“The first half of next week is still pretty unsettled.

“It is something that people certainly need to be wary of, and still taking care of, as we head into Sunday and into the start of the new working week as well – the risk of localised flooding, further flying debris and travel disruption is possible as a result of all of this.”

Heavy rain will also move in across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and southern Scotland on Sunday, with between 10 and 20mm (nearly an inch) of rain expected to fall.

Another band of rain will sweep in across England and Wales overnight, increasing the risk of flooding as the ground is already saturated.

“Given recent heavy rain, this extra rainfall could lead to some local surface water and river flooding,” Mr Vautrey said.

Meanwhile, around 101,000 customers were still without power on Sunday following the devastation caused to the electricity network by Éowyn.

A yellow weather warning for wind and a yellow warning for snow and ice will be in place across Northern Ireland on Sunday.

It comes two days after Éowyn brought winds of more than 90mph to Northern Ireland.

“Given ongoing recovery work after Storm Éowyn, impacts may be more widespread than would ordinarily be expected with winds of this strength,” the Met Office said.

At the storm’s height, nearly a million properties were without power across the British Isles, while many road and rail links were blocked.