Met Office issues yellow rain warnings for NI and western Scotland

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for heavy rain covering parts of Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Saturday September 27, and a separate multi-day yellow warning for large swathes of western Scotland from Wednesday October 1 to early Friday October 3. Forecasters said the two systems could bring persistent, heavy downpours that may cause flooding, travel disruption and intermittent power outages.

The Saturday alert comes into force in Northern Ireland at 7am and runs until 7pm, covering eastern counties from the North Coast near Portrush across much of Antrim and Down. In Scotland the warning begins at 8am and will remain in force until around midnight, affecting the west coast and islands roughly from Fort William to Whithorn, including parts of the Highlands, Dumfries and Galloway, Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire. The Met Office said 30 to 50 millimetres of rain is likely quite widely, with up to 70 millimetres possible across western areas, and warned that this may lead to some flooding and disruption.

Forecasters said outbreaks of rain will move eastwards across Northern Ireland on Saturday morning and are likely to become...