A three day long weather warning has been issued, with wind and rain forecast to bring a weekend washout.
Although the Met Office hasn’t yet named the stormy weather set to hit the south coast this weekend, it will be dubbed Storm Darragh if it does become a named storm.
And with winds of up to 80mph and as much as 3in or 7cm of rain, this is a distinct possibility.
The warning, issued this morning, is in place from 3pm on Friday (6 December) until 6am on Sunday and covers all of England and Wales.
It says: “A deep low may cross England and Wales from Friday afternoon, clearing to the east Saturday night.
“The low may bring a period of strong winds to much of the warning area, with some heavy rain likely to the north and west of the low centre, and some hill snow in the north (above about 200 metres).
“Around 15mm to 25mm of rain may fall quite widely, more particularly across central, northern and western parts of England and Wales, with exposed higher ground in the north and west (particularly parts of Wales, which are at greatest risk of seeing flooding impacts) perhaps locally seeing closer to 50mm to 70mm.
“Winds may quite widely gust to around 40mph to 50mph inland but locally could gust in excess of 60mph while, around coasts, winds may gust to 60mph to 70mph, perhaps locally nearer 80mph.
“The wind and rain may cause disruption to travel, with difficult driving conditions likely.”