Britain’s first official named storm – Storm Abigail – will hit tonight [Thursday 12th November], bringing 90mph winds, amber weather warnings, and the threat of flooding with it.
Oh yes.
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A yellow "be aware" warning issued by the Met Office has been upgraded to amber “be prepared” alerts across the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland and parts of the Highlands and Islands.
Yellow warnings have also been added for the rest of Scotland between 6pm today and 2pm on Friday.
Chief meteorologist Paul Gunderson said: “In terms of impact, the Western Isles, north of Scotland and Orkney could see winds of 90mph with potential impacts upon transport and maybe power supplies too.
“We could see quite a lot of lightning as well and high tides, so with that in mind we have upgraded to amber.”
Storm Abigail represents the first time that a severe weather system has been given a name under the Met Office’s “Name Our Storms” project.
As part of the pilot project, storms throughout autumn and winter 2015/16 will be named based on a list from A-Z chosen by members of the public.
It is hoped that this will help to raise awareness of severe weather and ensure greater safety of the public.
However STV weather presenter Sean Batty said that we shouldn't let the name startle us TOO much, as gales of a similar speed to Storm Abigail are fairly normal for the time of year.
He said: "The naming of the storm may worry some people, as this has not been done before.
“However, this is something new being tried out by the Met Office and Met Éireann, and all storm systems that look as if they will affect the UK will now be named.”
He added: "The unsettled and changeable weather is likely to continue for the next few weeks."
Abigail is just the first of the UK’s named storms.
It (or should that be... she?) will be followed by Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.
Guess we’d better batten down the hatches, hadn’t we?