Dundee, Angus and parts of Fife could face strong winds on Tuesday, while Perth is set for heavy snow, forecasters have warned.
A wave of strong winds, rain and snow set to batter Tayside and parts of Fife on Tuesday has been named Storm Barra after power has been restored to most homes following the impacts of Storm Arwen last Friday.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for strong winds across most of the UK the east coast of Scotland for Tuesday, while heavy snow is expected throughout in-land Scotland, including Perthshire.
⚠️ Yellow weather warning issued ⚠️
Snow across Scotland and northern England
Tuesday 1100 – 2359
Latest info 👉 https://t.co/QwDLMfRBfsStay #WeatherAware⚠️ pic.twitter.com/Uou00iUWVf
— Met Office (@metoffice) December 5, 2021
The bad weather has been named by Irish forecasters as ‘Storm Barra’.
It comes as many homes across Angus and Perthshire have finally had power restored after over a week of power-outages caused by Storm Arwen last Friday.
The 90mph winds storm has had devastating impacts across Scotland, which left many homes without power in Angus and Perthshire for eight days while Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) worked to restore supplies.
The firm issued a statement on Saturday evening to say they were working to reconnect the final 30 remaining homes.
Yellow weather warning
The latest yellow weather warning runs from 11am on Tuesday until midnight.
Those in Angus, Dundee and parts of Fife are being told to expect “gusts of 45-50mph” while exposed coastal locations could experience up to 60-70mph winds.
People living and travelling through in-land Scotland, inlcuding Perthshire, are being told that “2-5cm is expected to accumulate quite widely across the area, but locally this could reach 10cm”.
Power restored to most Angus and Perthshire homes
Following the storm last Friday, SSEN moved to a “red alert” status after the company said it had received more than 250 high-voltage faults as of 10pm on 26 November due to fallen trees, branches and other debris hitting infrastructure.
On the night of the storm, 80,000 people remained off the grid with supply restored to about 30,000 customers, with Angus, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and the Moray coast being the worst affected.
On Wednesday evening, 824 properties in Angus and 197 in Perthshire remained off-grid, with SSEN warning customers that some could face over a week without power and encouraged residents in affected areas to seek support with accommodation.
On Friday evening, SSEN said approximately 950 customers in Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire were still without power but the latest update said there were just 30 properties left across Scotland without power over Saturday night.
Mark Rough, SSEN’s Director of Operations, said: “The weather conditions were really challenging for our teams on Saturday, but we continued to work throughout Saturday night to safely connect the final few homes.
“Our localised network has sustained significant damage and through a combination of repairs and mobile generation we will continue to work until all power is restored.”
SSEN received over 100,000 calls since the storm
Head of customer contact centre at SSEN, Gemma Wilson, said the firm have received over 100,000 calls from customers since Storm Arwen hit last Friday.
She said: “Storm Arwen has been one of the most challenging experiences I’ve ever come across, we have received over 100,000 calls from our customers since Friday 26 November.
“We understand that the call volumes and the lengths of wait times has been more than we would expect and we do really thank our customers for their continued patience and for the support and also to the kind words that they’ve given to our call taking staff.
Shannen Davidson, Executive complaints team at SSEN said: “It has been a very challenging time for customers.
“It’s been a very intense and busy period, it’s not something we’ve ever seen before on this scale.”
Support from community
Since it first deployed its welfare provisions on Sunday, SSEN has served in excess of 25,000 free meals and 50,000 drinks to those without power, with one welfare van in Kirriemuir serving over 1,000 meals and 2,000 drinks in just one day.
Impacted Angus local, Justin Emmerson, 50, who stays at Kinnordy, said being provided food each day “made a huge difference”.
He said: “It has been stressful but it has been made a whole lot easier because of the food van. The guys at the van have been amazing and we are so grateful to them.”
Hundreds of road across Scotland were also impacted and closed due to fallen trees.
The storm caused three devastating fatalities across the country, including one Aberdeenshire man who died after being crushed by a fallen tree.
Angus council closed eleven schools last Monday following the power outages but most were opened again on the Tuesday for the remainder of the week.
The storm also left several Dundee establishments and homes in ruins, including a 50-foot tree that landed on a pensioners home, the destruction of Ballumbie driving range, the collapsed roof of Charleston bar, and a caravan that landed upside down in a garden in Douglas.
