An emergency alert is being sent to millions of people in Scotland ahead of the rare red warning. The last wind storm of this scale to affect Central Scotland was on 3 January 2012. At the time it prompted a Met Office red warning for wind that was similar in scale and scope to the one issued for Éowyn.

Millions of people in Scotland received an emergency alert to their mobile phones after the Met Office issued a red danger to life warning for wind. The Cabinet Office alert at around 6pm on Thursday in response to Storm Eowyn was the largest real-life use of the emergency system to date.

Rare red weather warnings have been issued for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland ahead of Storm Éowyn’s arrival. The storm is expected to bring life-threatening winds of up to 100mph (161km/h) along exposed coasts,