85mph Maria threatens to blast Scotland

HURRICANE Maria threatens to batter Scotland with gusts of up to 85mph after crossing the North Atlantic, forecasters warned last night.

The potential effects on Britain are expected to be ‘far from those experienced in the Caribbean’, where the storm destroyed homes and flooded towns, but it could bring heavy rain and very strong winds, the Met Office said.

It added that it would consider whether or not to issue severe weather warnings amid indications that gusts of 85mph will hit the North of Scotland from Sunday, with 65mph elsewhere.

Yesterday the Category Four hurricane was about 175 miles south-east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Forecasters said weather systems such as Maria often head north from the tropics, but when hurricanes lose connection with warm tropical waters they lose their source of energy and weaken rapidly.

The systems usually weaken but their remnants still contain tropical air which can influence the weather in the north-east Atlantic, including the UK.

Frank Saunders, duty chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: ‘Ex-Maria is likely to impact our weather towards the end of the weekend and into the beginning of next week.’

Meteorologists are watching the progress of hurricanes Lee and Maria as they take curved tracks across the North Atlantic.

Maria hit the Caribbean just days after Hurricane Irma, which was one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record.