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Storm Babet floods Ireland. England and Scotland next

Anthony Sharwood

"Storm Babet", an intense and powerful autumn weather system, is lashing the UK and Ireland.

Heavy rain has already caused severe flooding in Cork and nearby areas in Ireland's south, with more extremely heavy rain to come in Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England.

Unlike Australia's BoM which only names cyclones, the UK’s Met Office and the Irish Meteorological Service – also known as Met Éireann – name severe storms of all types.

The Met Office also has three warning levels, and on Wednesday it issued a Red warning for parts of Scotland, the agency’s most severe warning level, and the first such warning in more than three years.

It warned that Storm Babet will bring "exceptional rainfall and impactful wind for some".

As you can see in the Met Office graphic below, the heaviest rain from this system is now moving east, with eastern Scotland set for an absolute drenching on Thursday through Saturday.

Source: UK Met Office.

Parts of southeast England including London could also get a significant soaking on Friday, and while a soggy London day will hardly surprise millions of Aussies who have been there, the forecast says there's the possibility of 75 mm.

That would be a daily rainfall total higher than the October monthly average for most London weather stations, and bear in mind that October and November are London's wettest months on average.

Wind will also be a hazard with Storm Babet, particularly on the east coast of Scotland where the Met Office has forecast gusts of 70 mph (112 km/h).

UK water safety group, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, advised people to "stay a safe distance away from the water and cliff edges as the conditions could knock you off your feet or wash you into the sea".

Meanwhile parts of Ireland are still underwater and not yet at the mopping-up stage after more than 115 mm of rain in 24 hours at some weather stations in Cork, the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland.

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