Through the next two to three days expect wet weather to be joined by unusually strong winds for the time of year, reaching gale force strengths in some places on Friday. Below, the wind strengths and potential gusts have been outlined in more detail for Thursday and Friday this week.

As we are aware, tropical storms need huge amounts of heat and moisture to develop and be maintained. These conditions are provided mainly between 5 degrees and 30 degrees latitude and over oceans where the surface waters are relatively warm. If the conditions are right then they can develop into