STORM Jorge will bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of the UK from Friday.

Several yellow weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office for strong winds and rain over the weekend.

Heavy rainfall is also expected from the early hours of Friday morning until Saturday morning.

Named by the Spanish meteorological service Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) on Thursday, Storm Jorge will track across the north-west of the UK over the weekend bringing another spell of strong winds and heavy rain.

Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, Paul Gundersen, said: “This weekend we’ll see another named storm bring strong winds to parts of the UK with several wind and rain warnings in place.

“On Friday a band of rain associated with Storm Jorge will move across the UK - we have issued rain warnings for parts of Wales and northern England, where rain will be heaviest and we could see 60-80mm possible over the highest ground. 

"South-westerly winds will strengthen through Saturday morning and it’ll turn widely windy except for northern Scotland, with wind warnings in place for Northern Ireland, Wales, southern Scotland and much of England. 

"Where warnings are in place gusts of 50-60mph are likely quite widely with 65-70mph possible in coastal areas, however the strongest and most damaging winds are expected across the Republic of Ireland.”

Why is this storm not called Ellen?

The system will not be named Ellen but will align with the Met Office's European partners and be referred to as 'Jorge'.

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Dan Harris, said: "As Storm Jorge begins to weaken and clear later on Saturday we'll see a trend back to slightly colder conditions, with some snow over hills and mountains in the north of the UK and a mixture of rain and hail showers in the south. Away from much of Scotland it'll remain blustery on Sunday, although not quite as windy as Saturday.

"The weather looks likely to remain rather cold and showery into next week and there's a chance of further wet and windy weather around the middle of the week, although confidence in details are low at this stage."