Severe gales and flooding are expected to hit parts of the UK as Hurricane Katia makes its way across the Atlantic.

 Winds of up to 80mph are predicted to hit north-west Scotland by Monday, with Northern Ireland, north Wales and northern England also likely to be affected.

Forecaster Michael Dukes, from MeteoGroup UK, said: “It looks likely this will be a significant storm event for mid-September.

“Strong winds have been predicted, which could result in trees coming down, causing major structural damage and travel delays.

“Inevitably with the remnants of a tropical storm, there will also be a risk of flash flooding.

“The hurricane is moving slowly at the moment and current predictions show that the remnants of the storm will hit north-west Scotland by Monday.”

Fellow weather expert Tom Tobler added: “It is looking like the storms will hit early Monday morning with the most severe weather coming in the middle of the day.

“Gusts over 60mph will be seen quite widely over northern and central Scotland and Northern Ireland and even down into northern England.

“The maximum gusts in western Scotland could quite easily get up to 75 or 80mph and potentially it could get above that. It could cause disruption and uproot trees especially as they still have a lot of leaves on being early autumn.”

Forecasters say the predicted high winds could coincide with high tides and western coasts in particular are at risk from localised flooding.