Communities on alert amid string of flood and weather warnings

Fife and Tayside face 70mph winds, while heavy rain could see water levels rise

Flood and weather warnings were put in place across Tayside and Fife as the regions braced themselves for Storm Erik.

Gusts of up to 70mph could batter parts of Scotland, with winds of 50mph expected “widely”, while heavy rain and melting snow could to lead to a local deluge.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued a serious of flood warnings across Perthshire affecting the River Earn, Glen Lyon, and the Innerpeffray to Bridge of Earn area, Crieff and Carse of Lennoch to Lochlane areas. The organisation also placed alerts on Dundee and Angus.

Sepa warned: “Levels are expected to remain high throughout Friday and into Saturday, as further rainfall is expected during this time.”

A yellow weather warning for wind has also been issued by the Met Office for midnight until 6pm.

A separate yellow warning for heavy rain, which could combine with melting snow and lead to flooding, were in place across Tayside and Fife yesterday.

The Met Office said there will be a “spell of very strong winds” which will lead to travel disruption. Roads and air, rail and ferry services are expected to be hit.

Power cuts were also said to be possible.

The wind warning stated: “A swathe of very strong westerly winds is expected to move east through Saturday morning, easing from the west during the day.

“Inland gusts of 55mph are expected quite widely, with some places having gusts to 70mph, more particularly around exposed coasts and hills.”

Today will see a mix of sunny spells and blustery showers, with the most persistent rain in the north of the country and the possible risk of hail and thunder in the west.

There will be frost and the chance of some snow in the north of the country towards the end of the weekend when falling rain meets cold air.

Forecasting tomorrow’s weather, the Met Office said: “There is the chance of patchy rain and this could be heavy in places. Because of the cold air, this could fall as snow on higher ground in Scotland and England on Sunday.

“We’re expecting a widespread frost on Sunday night and into Monday and the unsettled weather will continue into the start of next week.”

Storm Erik was named by Irish forecaster Met Eireann on Thursday.

Picture: Getty. A walker looks on as Storm Erik makes landfall in Prestwick, Ayrshire.

Handout photo from the Twitter feed of Dorset Police of a tree which fell on to a bus in Poole, with no reported injuries, as the storm brought strong winds to parts of the country.