Preparations are currently underway for dealing with the severity of forthcoming Storm Éowyn which is set to hit Éire and much of the UK tomorrow.

The Irish weather forecaster Met Éireann has issued a rare red weather warning beginning 2am tomorrow morning for extremely dangerous/ destructive weather across the whole of Éire.

The UK Met Office has also issued a red weather warning for parts of Scotland and the whole of Northern Ireland highlighting the very strong winds which will cause very dangerous conditions with widespread disruption and significant impacts expected.

Met Éireann said Storm Éowyn is expected to arrive with gale to storm force southerly winds becoming westerly with extreme, damaging and destructive gusts in excess of 130km/h.

For the UK, the Met Office said southerly then westerly winds will rapidly increase from west to east during the Friday morning rush hour with peakof 80-90mph firly widely and up to 100 mph along some exposed coasts.

Potential impacts outlined by the UK and Irish forecasters include:

• danger to life
• extremely dangerous travelling conditions
• unsafe working conditions
• disruption and cancellations to transport
• many fallen trees
• significant and widespread power outages
• impacts to communications networks
• structural damage
• damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down
• wave overtopping
• coastal flooding in low-lying and exposed areas

Due to the predicted severity of the storm, Uisce Éireann has activated its incident management processes, including deploying generators at key sites where power outages are likely.

Éire’s water company is also in touch with key stakeholders through the National Emergency Coordination Group which is activated by the Office of Emergency Planning and with the ESB in Ireland to coordinate the return of power to key water services sites post storm.