Northern Ireland braces for Storm Jocelyn as Met Office warns that 'resilence may be lower' due to impact of Storm Isha

Storm Isha caused havoc across much of NI on Sunday and Monday, leaving 53,000 homes without power, as well as causing obstructions on over 1000 roads.

It may come as little comfort to those worst affected, but the next storm to hit this week - Storm Jocelyn - is named after a famous scientist from Northern Ireland.

Met Eireann has named the latest storm after the astrophysicist Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered the first pulsating radio stars in 1967.

Her namesake is expected to blast across NI between 4pm on Tuesday and 1pm on Wednesday, but it will be significantly less severe than Isha.

The Met Office says that the resulting strong winds may lead to possible disruption to travel and electricity, once again.

"Winds are widely expected to gust to 55-65 mph, with a few exposed locations possibly seeing in excess of 70 mph," the forecaster warned.

"Gusts of 55-65mph are fairly typical for a winter storm across these areas, but following the impacts caused by Storm Isha resilience is expected to be lower and it may also hamper any ongoing recovery and repair efforts."

The PSNI said Isha put “significant pressure” on the 999 system on Sunday and Monday and urged people to report non-emergencies online or by calling 101.

An Amber warning from the Met Office had advised Northern Ireland that Isha would see winds gusting up to 80mph; The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation even placed a “tornado watch” zone in place for Northern Ireland, as well as parts of Scotland and northern England over the weekend.

One person was struck by falling debris after scaffolding became dislodged in Belfast and were treated at the scene by emergency services.

Northern Ireland Electricity Networks said on Monday morning that 40,000 customers were without power, with 53,000 hit by outages at the height of the storm.

Claire Scullion, from NIE Networks, told the BBC: "The force of the gusts and the sustained nature over several hours caused significant damage and the flying debris.

"The fallen trees and the weather conditions made repairs very difficult over the night. We would say to the public, please do not approach any broken poles, overhead lines or any damaged electrical equipment."

NIE Networks said the worst affected areas were Dungannon, Downpatrick, Enniskillen, Newry and Omagh, but added that there "are faults throughout Northern Ireland".

Trafficwatch NI reported that over 1000 obstructions were reported on roads throughout the province.

PSNI Chief Superintendent Davy Beck said that from 3.30pm on Sunday and 2am on Monday, officers dealt with over 1,300 calls from the public, approximately 600 of them related to the storm.

A number of trees in Northern Ireland made famous by the TV series Game Of Thrones were felled by the high winds at the Dark Hedges in Co Antrim.Six schools were also closed due to loss of power on Monday; Nettlefield PS in Belfast, St Mary's PS in County Tyrone, and County Down schools Killinchy PS and Meadow Bridge PS.

The managing director of Belfast International Airport, Graham Keddie, said Sunday was "tough" for its teams, but most aircraft had landed and they had returned to "virtually normal operations" on Monday.

Several Stena Line ferries on the Belfast to Liverpool route suffered significant delays.

The Met Office said “everybody” across the UK was affected by storm Isha, with winds gusting up to 99mph in some places. Heavy downpours resulted in 28 flood warnings in England and 50 in Scotland.

An 84-year-old man died during Storm Isha after the car he was a front seat passenger in crashed into a fallen tree in Falkirk in Scotland.

A rare red warning for wind in north-east Scotland was in place until 5am on Monday, with many major roads and rail lines disrupted by fallen trees.

Widespread power cuts in the Republic affected more than 230,000 properties and Dublin Airport said 29 flights were cancelled on Monday. A man aged in his 40s died in a single vehicle crash in Co Mayo as well as a woman in her 20s, who was a passenger in a van which hit a tree in Co Louth.