Yellow warning for heavy rain extended across more of Scotland

Residents have been warned of power cuts, flooding and travel disruption as heavy rain is set to continue hitting much of Scotland.

The Met Office yellow weather warning is in place until 3am on Monday with the east coast, Highlands and central belt affected.

On Sunday an updated warning was issued to include the Northeast Highlands, western parts of the Central Belt and parts of northeast England.

However, the rain is now expected to ease earlier than previously indicated.

ScotRail announced there will be no direct trains running between the central belt and Aberdeen and Inverness.

The travel operator warned that with speed restrictions in place services could be delayed or cancelled this weekend.

Shuttle services will run between Inverness and Perth as well as Aberdeen and Dundee.

Heavy rain as also lead to further flooding on rail lines with Network Rail announcing updates of speed restrictions on Twitter.

⚠️ ⛈️ We've had to add further speed restrictions. Here's the current list. 1/2

Muir of Ord – Dingwall
Dingwall – Kyle of Lochalsh
Tain – Lairg

Croy
Cumbernauld – Larbert/Polmont

Bridge of Allan – Perth
Perth – Blair Atholl@ScotRail @LNER @CrossCountryUK @CalSleeper https://t.co/G25gL7KbNO
— Network Rail Scotland (@NetworkRailSCOT) October 29, 2023

It comes as the third named storm of the season has now been named as Storm Ciarán and is forecast to bring very strong winds and heavy rain to southern parts of the UK

While, the storm is only causing weather warnings in the south west of England on Wednesday and Thursday, it is likely Scotland will also experience further rain as a result.

STV weather presenter Philip Petrie said: “For the start of the new working week things will actually be quite fine and settled, with a brief ridge of high pressure extending from the north across the country. This will keep things fine, dry and for some, bright through Monday and Tuesday.

“Overnight Tuesday however another low pressure system moves in bringing rain and strong winds.

“The main area of concern however is a deepening area of low pressure fast approaching from the Atlantic, which the Met Office have today named as Storm Ciaran. The worst affected areas because of the storm will be to the south of the UK, around southern England, but we will still see some impacts here in Scotland with some rain and stronger winds through Wednesday night and into Thursday.

“This marks our third named storm of the current storm season, our second one in the month of October. We’ll be keeping an on things over the next few days as it is likely further weather warnings will come out in relation to Storm Ciaran.”