Storm Barra on the way as power finally restored to last homes

Dundee, Angus and parts of Fife could face strong winds tomorrow, while Perthshire is set for heavy snow, forecasters have warned.

The strong winds, rain and snow on the way has been named Storm Barra.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for strong winds across most of the UK, including the east coast of Scotland, while heavy snow is expected throughout inland Scotland, including Perthshire.

It comes as many homes across Angus and Perthshire have finally had power restored after more than a week of outages caused by Storm Arwen last weekend.

The 90mph winds during the storm had a devastating impact across Scotland, leaving many homes without power for eight days while Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) worked to restore supplies.

The firm issued a statement on Saturday evening to say it was working to reconnect the 30 remaining homes without power.

The latest yellow weather warning runs from 11am tomorrow until midnight.

People in Angus, Dundee and parts of Fife are being told to expect “gusts of 4550mph” while exposed coastal locations could experience up to 60-70mph winds.

People living and travelling through inland Scotland, including Perthshire, are being told that “2-5cm is expected to accumulate quite widely across the area, but locally this could reach 10cm”.

Following the storm last Friday, SSEN moved to a “red alert” status after the company said it had received more than 250 high-voltage faults as of 10pm on November 26 due to fallen trees, branches and other debris hitting infrastructure. On the night of the storm, 80,000 people remained off the grid with supply restored to about 30,000 customers, with Angus, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and the Moray coast being the worst affected.

Last Wednesday evening, 824 properties in Angus and 197 in Perthshire remained off-grid, with SSEN warning customers that some could face more than a week without power and encouraged residents in affected areas to seek support with accommodation.

On Friday evening, SSEN said approximately 950 customers in Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire were still without power but the latest update said there were just 30 properties left across Scotland without power over Saturday night.

Mark Rough, SSEN’S director of operations, said: “The weather conditions were really challenging for our teams on Saturday, but we continued to work throughout Saturday night to safely connect the final few homes.

“Our localised network has sustained significant damage and through a combination of repairs and mobile generation we will continue to work until all power is restored.”

Gemma Wilson, head of the customer contact centre at SSEN, said: “Storm Arwen has been one of the most challenging experiences I’ve ever come across; we have received over 100,000 calls from our customers since Friday 26 November.”

Hundreds of roads across Scotland were also closed due to fallen trees.

The storm caused three fatalities across the country, including one Aberdeenshire man who died after being crushed by a falling tree.

WEATHER WARNING: Shoppers nip out to collect some essentials from the Food Warehouse in Glenrothes during Storm Darcy in February this year. Heavy snow is expected in Perthshire as Storm Barra rolls in tomorrow, just as power has finally been restored to all homes after Storm Arwen.