UK weather: Hold on to your hats - Storm Doris may have arrived

Hold on to your hats - Storm Doris may have arrived. Strong winds heralding the start of a new weather system were battering British shores on Thursday.

Coastal areas face gusts of up to 80mph after Devon and Cornwall beared the brunt of the weather system on Thursday morning.

The Met Office has extended its yellow "be aware" weather warning covering the south of the country and East Anglia on Friday to include Saturday.

It is expected to bring travel disruption, surface flooding and possible electricity outages across the south.

Forecasters have said the system would be named if it was upgraded to an amber "be prepared" warning.  

Storm Doris swell

A Met Office spokesman said: "There is the potential for very strong winds to cross parts of England and Wales on Friday, with gusts of 60 to 70 mph in places and perhaps over 80 mph in exposed coastal areas.

"There remains considerable uncertainty around the developments - if such winds were to occur, we would expect damage to trees and perhaps to buildings, possible disruption to power supplies, as well as delayed travel. 

"A number of potentially vigorous low pressure systems are likely to move quickly towards northwest Europe later this week.

"One of these, on Friday, may affect parts of southern parts of the UK. However it is worth stressing that there are a number of scenarios in which the strongest winds miss the UK altogether.

"Even so, spells of wet and windy weather will be affecting many areas later this week."

Extreme weather in the UK