Winds in excess of 100 km/h have already begun to batter the country on Sunday as warnings for 21 counties in Ireland and Northern Ireland came into effect.

Dramatic maps show exactly where more than 2,000 lightning strikes have raced across the UK in the wake of Met Office weather warnings issued for dozens of areas

The Met Office wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "A band of heavy rain will sweep in tonight, bringing snow over the hills across Northern Ireland, southern Scotland and the northern Pennines.