Storm Aileen is getting set to batter parts of Brtiain and Ireland over the next 24 hours.
Strong winds and rains are expected to hit much of England and Wales tonight, with weather warnings also in place across Ireland.
The storm, the first to be named since this season's names were released, is as a result of a deepening area of low pressure sweeping across the Irish Sea.
In Britain an amber National Severe Weather Warning is in place, with gusts of 55-65 mph expected across parts of Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
Gusts up to around 75mph gusts could also be possible in exposed locations such as the coast and hills in these areas.
A yellow weather warning for rain is also in place for parts of Northern Ireland, Northern England and Southern Scotland, warning of 30-40mm of rain falling overnight.
In Ireland a status yellow wind warning is in place for all of Munster and counties Galway, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Wicklow and Dublin.
"A deepening depressionis expected to track eastwards across the centre of Ireland this evening with a band of very strong winds on its southern and western flanks, which will affect counties of the southwest, south and parts of the east coast later," said the Irish National Meteorological Service Met Éireann.
"Southwest to west winds are expected to increase to mean speed of 50 to 65km/h, with gusts of 90 to 110km/h this afternoon in coastal counties of the southwest and south, with the severe winds becoming northwesterly and transferring to parts of the east coast later this evening or early tonight.
"Winds will be at their strongest in exposed coastal areas."
#StormAileen has officially been named & will bring severe gales to central parts of the UK. More here https://t.co/b5tJBGZGiT #WeatherAware pic.twitter.com/1OoA7zIYNY
— Met Office (@metoffice) September 12, 2017
The Met Office's Chief forecaster Frank Saunders added: “Storm Aileen is expected to bring strong winds of up to 75mph to a central segment of the UK and an Amber weather warning has been issued.
"As well as the strong winds, there will be some heavy rain pushing eastwards overnight which could see accumulations of 30-40mm.
"The low pressure system that is bringing these strong winds will move fairly swiftly from west to east over the UK and although there will still be some disruption through Wednesday morning, the winds will ease by the afternoon leaving a day of blustery showers.”
Speculation that the storm was being driven by the severe weather in the Caribbean and US was dismissed by the Met Office.
"There is no such connection," said Met Office Deputy Meteorologist Chris Tubbs. “There are no links between the very strong winds we expect to see here in the UK and the hurricanes affecting the United States and the Caribbean at present.
"This system originated well north in the Atlantic Ocean, independent of the current Caribbean hurricanes”.
As Storm Aileen clears out eastwards into the North Sea, Britain and Ireland will be left with cool showery conditions through the end of the week and into the weekend.
Gerald Fleming, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann, said: "Last winter was a very quiet one weather-wise and we only worked our way through five named storms, from Angus to Ewan.
"While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one we are prepared with a whole new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us.
"As before Met Eireann forecasters will work in close co-operation with our colleagues from the UK Met Office to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather."
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