Storm Dave Set to Batter UK Over Easter Weekend With Dangerous Winds

Storm Dave, a rapidly deepening Atlantic low pressure system, is bearing down on the UK on one of the country's busiest travel weekends in years, with the Met Office warning that flying debris could cause injuries or danger to life.

The Met Office issued an amber wind warning covering the north and north-west of England and parts of Wales, active from 7pm tonight until 3am on Easter Sunday. The alert, upgraded from an initial yellow warning, flags "disruptive and potentially damaging winds" across those regions. Broader yellow warnings extend across mainland Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England from Liverpool to Newcastle, and North Wales, running from 6pm Saturday until midday Sunday. A separate yellow warning for snow covers parts of north-west Scotland, where blizzard conditions are possible.

The wind figures behind those warnings are stark. Peak gusts of 50-60mph are expected widely across warning areas, rising to 60-70mph in more exposed locations. In western Scotland, forecasters warn of a small chance of gusts reaching 80-90mph, the equivalent of hurricane-force winds. The storm is expected to intensify rapidly as it crosses the jet stream before tracking northeastwards close to or across north-western parts of the UK through Saturday evening and night, eventually clearing into the North Sea on Sunday.

The timing could hardly be worse. The RAC projected this Easter as one of the busiest periods on UK roads since 2022, with tens of millions of leisure journeys expected from Good Friday through Easter Monday. RAC spokesperson Rod Dennis said Storm Dave was set to make driving conditions "particularly challenging" across the north and west, urging drivers not to "underestimate" the impact.

Around two million people are also estimated to be flying abroad over the holiday weekend. With the storm's peak expected late Saturday, short-haul routes face the greatest exposure to delays and cancellations. Road, rail and ferry services are similarly at risk, with the Met Office citing longer journey times, possible bridge and road closures in exposed locations, power cuts, and potential disruption to mobile phone coverage among the storm's expected consequences.

Transport Scotland has activated its Resilience Room and Multi Agency Response Team to monitor conditions and coordinate decision-making across the transport network. Transport for Wales has warned customers to expect disruptions.

The Met Office advises the public within warning areas to stay indoors as much as possible, exercise extra caution when driving, avoid coastal areas, and follow instructions from emergency services and local authorities.

Storm Dave is the fourth named storm of the 2025/26 season, following Amy, Bram and Chandra. The name was publicly nominated, reportedly in honour of "my beloved Dave." Storms are named alphabetically from public submissions across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, with Q, U, X, Y and Z skipped under naming conventions. Dave arrives as a particularly unwelcome addition to that list for the millions with Easter travel plans already under way.