HURRICANE OPHELIA IS GONNA BE BARD!
70mph storm after heatwave
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BRITAIN is set to be battered by a hurricane next week.
Hurricane Ophelia will bring 70mph gales and driving rain.
It will reach the UK on Monday – hours after the country basks in a 25C heatwave this weekend.
The tropical storm, named after a character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was upgraded to a hurricane yesterday and is set to strengthen over the coming days.
The Met Office is warning of disruption as it hits Britain – almost 30 years to the day since the Great Storm of 1987, which killed 18 people.
The west of the country will be worst hit, with winds of between 60-70mph.
Met Office forecaster Alex Burkhill said: “Ophelia became a hurricane overnight and the forecast track takes it eastwards towards Iberia for the weekend. Then it will continue its way towards the British Isles, probably reaching us very early next week.”
Mr Burkhill said the storm will have weakened so that it is no longer categorised as a hurricane by the time it gets here.
But he added: “It’s definitely something that we are keeping an eye on, for the possibility of some disruptive weather early next week.”
The unsettled conditions look likely to continue throughout the rest of the week.
But first the country will enjoy what is left of the Indian summer. Yesterday bookies Ladbrokes slashed the odds on temperatures hitting 25C this weekend.