Storm Dudley & Storm Eunice: Met Offices warns of road closures, power cuts and fallen trees in Newcastle

The Met Office has issued a serious weather warning for Newcastle as Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice prepare to batter the region.

An amber warning for wind is in place with gusts of wind expected to reach between 70 and 90 mph.

A period of "very strong and disruptive winds" is on the cards when Storm Dudley hits.

The Met Office has put in a weather warning that starts at 9 am on Wednesday, February 16 and lasts until 9 am on Thursday, February 17.

The Met Office stated that Geordies should expect that: "Road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected, and some roads and bridges are likely to close, leading to longer journey times and cancellations.

"Probably some fallen trees and damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs.

"There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage

"Injuries and danger to life is likely from large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties."

The Met Office's weather warning covers an extensive area of the UK, but the North East looks set to be one of the hardest hit.

As well as Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside have all been issued the same warning.

Storm Eunice will follow shortly after that.

The Met Office has put in place a yellow weather warning for Storm Eunice starting at midnight on Friday, February 18 and lasting until 9 pm on Friday, February 18.

A “period of very strong winds that could cause significant disruption” is on the cards.

The Met Office warned that people in Newcastle should expect: “There is a small chance that flying debris will result in a danger to life, with fallen trees, damage to buildings and homes, roofs blown off and power lines brought down.

“There is a small chance that injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties.

“Where damaging winds occur, there is a chance that long interruptions to power supplies and other services may occur.

“There is a small chance that roads, bridges and railway lines could close, with long delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights.”

It's been a tricky winter for the area after Storm Arwen left thousands across the North East without power in December.

Northern Powergrid apologised at the time, saying: "As well as creating enormous challenges for us in terms of the engineering work we have to do to respond, the scale of the disruption has made it very challenging for us to communicate effectively with our customers.

"We have heard that loud and clear - and we are sorry that we weren't able to do better in that respect."