We're moving to Weather Warning for the north of Scotland

We’re moving to Weather Warning status in the north of Scotland ahead of potential gale-force winds tomorrow into Thursday; the Met Office has also issued its own Yellow Warning for high winds across the north west of Scotland tomorrow.

In preparation for these gale-force winds, we’re taking the necessary steps to make sure our teams are ready to deal with any damage the weather may cause to our network, and are able restore supplies for our customers as safely and as quickly as possible.  

💨 The weather forecast 

Forecasts are predicting gusts to be at their strongest on Wednesday morning. However, with higher-than-normal wind speeds expected to persist across the two days, these prolonged conditions could impact our teams’ ability to carry out repairs and restore customers supplies as safely and as quickly as possible.

Gusts up to 80mph are forecast to hit the Western Isles on Wednesday morning, tapering down slightly to around 70mph as the day progresses. We’re also anticipating gusts of up to 70mph across Argyll and the Highlands over the course of the day.

Moving into Thursday, gusts across the north of Scotland are forecast to ease slightly, but the Western Isles, Highlands and Argyll could still see speeds peaking around the 50-60mph mark.

In addition, we’re also anticipating long spells of rain on Wednesday - accompanied in some areas by lightning - and it’s also possible that we could see snow showers in the more exposed, higher parts of the north of Scotland. 

👷 How we’re responding 

‘Weather Warning’ is the first of our levels of heightened preparedness ahead of a period of forecasted severe weather.

Moving to this status means we’ve activated our well-rehearsed contingency plans, with teams in strategic locations ready to respond to network damage and faults, which may interrupt your power supply.  Teams on duty overnight in our control room have also been bolstered; they’ll be on hand to reroute the network around faults, meaning the power in some cases can be restored more quickly.

We’ll continue to monitor the weather forecast closely and will issue further updates depending on the forecast.   

📞 Help and advice

If you see any damage to our equipment, please stay back, don’t touch it and instead report it to us directly by calling 105, or via our Power Track website, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Customers are also being encouraged to be prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

• Saving the emergency power cut number - '105' - to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network
• Visiting our Power Track Website to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Power Track.
• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on our website, where there is a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of our advisors via the Webchat service

Customers are also eligible for our Priority Services if they:

• Are deaf or hard of hearing
• Have a disability
• Live with children under five
• Are blind or partially-sighted
• Have a chronic illness
• Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity
• Are over 60.

To find out more about our Priority Services, click here or call 0800 294 3259.