Disruption expected: Storm Babet brings impacts all week

Storm Babet will be arriving from today. Here's the latest forecast and impacts.

Storm Babet is part of a complex low pressure system, that won't just by passing by in the space of one day. Instead, it will be swirling overhead for much of the rest of the week, delivering persistent rainfall and brisk winds.

In the situation of complex lows, the larger system spawns off some smaller lows, which can make predicting the weather even trickier than usual.

This is because the smaller-scale detail and specifics are very susceptible to change, with lots going on, so it can become quite a messy picture, as with Babet.

In the coming days, Babet will be delivering widespread and persistent rainfall, particularly to northern and eastern Scotland on Thursday, with rainfall totals reaching 100 mm by Thursday night, and nearer to 200 mm by the end of the week.

The highest rainfall totals look to be focused towards the south-eastern slopes of the Cairngorms, in addition to the eastern Southern Uplands, though widely across central and northern Scotland there is expected to be a high volume of rain.

Northumberland and parts of the Pennine will also be susceptible to some very heavy downpours with a risk of flooding across all aforementioned areas in the coming days.

Across Ireland however, Babet has already made itself known with rainfall totals reaching over 40 mm across parts of Kerry and Cork in Ireland since Tuesday, locally above 50 mm, with more rain to come. For some, half a month's worth of rainfall has already fallen within 24 hours.

The wind direction is also important to note in this situation. The winds will predominantly be from the south-east, so the wind direction is less common exacerbating the risk of damage and disruption. South-east facing hills will also see the highest rainfall totals as a result.

Along exposed eastern coasts, train lines are likely to be disrupted too, with LNER already reporting cancellations.

Impacts from rivers are also possible across north-east England and eastern Scotland, with catchments and surrounding soils already saturated from recent heavy rain.