Viaducts closed for safety and amber warning in place as region braces itself for Storm Isha lashing
A main road near Oswestry is closed and an amber weather warning has been issued as the region braces itself for high winds and heavy rain, with Storm Isha expected to sweep across the UK on Sunday.
The viaducts carrying the A483 over the Rivers Ceiriog and Dee between Gledrid and Ruabon, on the Shropshire-Wales border, were shut for safety reasons on Sunday morning. They are not scheduled to reopen until 6am on Monday due to expected high winds.
The official diversion route is via Llangollen using the A5 and the A539.
Yellow and amber weather warnings are in place for much of the UK, with the Met Office issuing upgrading a yellow warning to an amber weather warning for high winds all day Sunday and up to noon on Monday.
Storm Isha will bring a spell of very strong winds during Sunday evening and into Monday. Disruption to travel and utilities is likely.
A yellow warning for heavy rain in Wales is also likely to lead to disruption with flooding possible across parts of Wales on Sunday and early Monday, the Met Office said.
It said bus and train services will probably be affected with journey times taking longer, flooding of a few homes and businesses was "likely" and some interruption to power supplies and other services could be expected.
The Met Office added that the region will turn increasingly windy on Sunday, with winds locally touching gale force by sunset. By evening, gales are likely, and it is likely to be very wet.
The wind is set to ease overnight, turning to clear spells and a few blustery showers by morning.
Met Office forecaster Ellie Glaisyer said: “The main thing about this storm is it is very widespread across the whole of the UK.
“Quite often we see storms affecting the northwest or the southern half of the UK, whereas this one, later on Sunday and into Monday, the whole of the UK is covered by a warning, which is relatively rare.
“In that nature it’s a very widespread storm and it’s going to be affecting everybody. Heavy rain will affect everybody, those strong winds will affect everybody.
“That’s the main difference to previous storms we have seen.”
Storm Isha is the ninth named storm to hit the UK since the season began in September.
Each storm is named when it poses a risk to people and they are given names beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet.
The record number of named storms in one year is when the Met Office began the practice in 2015/16, with Storm Katie being the 11th and final storm of the season.
If there are three more named storms between next week and August, this year will mark a new record.
Cold Arctic air pushing south into North America is making the jet stream more active, the Met Office said, and because it flows from west to east, it is bringing stormier weather to the UK.
