Scotland bracing for impact of rare MET office red weather warning
There is a 'danger to life' from Storm Babet in Angus and Aberdeenshire
People living in Angus and Aberdeenshire are being urged to avoid travel and stay at home with a red weather warning covering both areas.
Storm Babet will bring 70mph gusts and over one month's worth of rain in the worst-affected regions, with a risk to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater.
The rare red weather warning comes into force from 6pm this evening and will remain in place until midday tomorrow.
There may be power outages and some areas could be cut off for days, with people urged to check for flood updates, avoid travel and expect school closures.
Impact in Angus and other parts of Tayside
Angus Council has confirmed schools will close at lunchtime today and remain shut on Friday to "ensure the safety of children, young people, parents, and school staff".
Vaccination centres will also be closed.
All parts of Tayside will be affected by the adverse weather - with amber warnings for wind and rain in place.
The Tay Road Bridge has a 30mph speed restriction due to high winds and Perth's Queen's Bridge will close after 9.30am as floodgates are installed.
The floodgates at Broughty Ferry and Riverside are also closed.
Scotrail and LNER services won't be running throughout Tayside.
Widespread impact
Extensive road closures are expected across the country.
Mass train cancellations have been imposed by ScotRail, expected to last from Thursday until Saturday.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has three flood warnings in place as of 7am, along with 14 flood alerts.
It is the first red warning for rain issued in the UK since Storm Dennis in February 2020.
'Month's worth of rainfall'
Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said: "We're going to see prolonged heavy rain, where we could see 200 to 250 millimetres of rain falling within a day which is well over a month's worth of rainfall for eastern parts of Scotland.
"We're likely to see flooding, power disruption, travel disruption, there is a risk to life as well.
"There's also an amber wind warning out for eastern parts of Scotland, where we could see gusts of 60 to 70 miles an hour, just adding to the extremely dangerous weather coming for parts of Scotland."
Storm Babet hit Ireland on Wednesday after sweeping in from the Atlantic, bringing with it heavy rainfall and causing extensive flooding in parts of the country.
Members of the Irish Defence Forces were deployed in the town of Midleton, Co Cork in the south of Ireland, where more than 100 properties were flooded.
Cork County Council said more than a month's worth of rain had fallen in the space of 24 hours, leading to unprecedented flooding, saturated land and high river levels across the county.
Large swathes of already-saturated Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern and eastern England will also see strong winds and heavy rain on Thursday, with yellow severe weather warnings issued through to Saturday.
Storm Babet, a complex area of low pressure which developed to the west of the Iberian peninsula, was named by the Met Office on Monday morning.