The north and north-east of Scotland is expected to be battered by high winds and heavy rain tomorrow as the first named storm of the season arrives.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind, while further south the warning is amber as Storm Ali sweeps in.
Travel disruption is expected and there is a warning of injuries and danger to life from flying debris in the amber area.
The yellow warning covers between 6am and 10pm tomorrow.
Ali is first on the storm names list for 2018-19 announced by the Met Office and Met Eireann, which has run the Name Our Storms scheme for four years.
The season’s names have been compiled from a list of submissions by the public, choosing some of the most popular names and also selecting those which reflect the nations, culture and diversity of the UK and Ireland.
The practice is aimed at raising awareness of severe weather before it hits, with polling finding almost 80% of people think naming storms is useful in making them realise severe weather may have a greater impact than normal.
Meteorologist Dean Hall said parts of the UK felt gusts of about 30-40mph on Tuesday morning, with wind speeds reaching 50mph in parts of Wales.
Storm Helene, which was downgraded after initial warnings it may pose a risk to life, is moving away towards the north east and will have moved on by Wednesday.
“We’ve got rain currently across Scotland, northern England, eastern parts of Northern Ireland, associated with what was Storm Helene,” Mr Hall said.
Wednesday could see winds of 60-70mph, the forecaster said, adding: “Certainly we could see close to 80mph, possibly even higher miles per hour in exposed areas in the far north of the country.”
