SOMERSET will be gripped by a 39-hour ‘danger to life’ weather warning with strong winds and heavy rain expected to bring disruption from Friday (November 6).

A number of warnings are in place across the UK and the Met Office says gusts in some coastal areas could hit 60-70mph.

Neil Armstrong, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “A spell of strong winds will affect parts of northern Scotland from Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning.

“A band of rain will also move eastwards across the UK overnight, bringing heavy rain to most parts of the UK as it crosses the country. We expect this rain to clear the southeast of England by 7am tomorrow (Thursday) morning, before another spell of wet and windy weather begins.

“Thursday will remain blustery, especially in the north, with further areas of rain, which will be heavy at times, moving eastwards through the day. Some of this rain will fall as snow over the highest ground in Scotland. Squally conditions are possible alongside the heavy rain in the south of the UK through the evening rush hour, bringing some potential challenges for the transport network.”

The Met Office says on its website that around 15-25 mm 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 50-70 mm. Winds may quite widely gust to around 40-50 mph inland but locally could gust in excess of 60 mph, while around coasts, wind speeds may hit 60-70 mph, perhaps locally nearer 80mph.

The wind and rain may cause disruption to travel, with difficult driving conditions likely.

The weather warning will be in place for Somerset and England from 3pm on Friday until 6am on Sunday (December 8).