If it is like this much disruption will entail - wrong wind direction for vegetation.

A woman has died in the rep of Ireland as her caravan is blown off a cliff by Ali's winds!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45572946

Max gust here 69mph so far with peak to come around 2pm. Numerous trees down in Highland Perthshire temporarily blocking a number of roads. Tay bridge down to cars only. Only a matter of time before it closes altogether (when winds top 80mph) I think.

edit. Now max gust over 70 mph at the Uni weather site.

As at 1pm this afternoon, the mean wind speed at Edinburgh Gogarbank was now up to 31.1mph from the SW with gusts up to 58.4mph.

It's just as well that we're getting these sorts of winds during the day rather than at night because even as it is, that is making it very noisy in the block of flats where I live, which wouldn't be good for trying to get to sleep if all of this was happening at night.

Tay Bridge in Dundee closed to all traffic after a gust of 92 mph was recorded.

That might appear to be such a big issue as it used to be since the main traffic which used to go over the Forth Road Bridge beforehand, now uses the new Queensferry Crossing which has been built to be able to withstand this type of weather conditions.

However, there are still some bus services which cross the old Forth Road Bridge, and which won't now be able to do so today. Furthermore, the fact that this bridge is closed altogether means that you're not even going to be able to walk or cycle across there as you would normally still be able to do these days.

Absolutely wild weather here from about 10am - 1pm. I work on the 11 floor of a 12 storey office building and we could all feel it swaying in the wind - like being on a boat!

Scores of trees down and over 60,000 people without electricity.

Having said that though, it is clear that Edinburgh isn't getting hit quite as badly by this as other places like Dundee, despite being much further into the amber warning zone and right in the middle of it, although what we have is still bad enough as it is.

Looks like Arpege / ICON updates yesterday were much closer to the mark than GFS. Also I think the Met O were going for 75mph as the upper limit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-45557619

Today has seen the highest September gust ever recorded here at 91mph 

Forecast was for gusts up to 80mph so a good bit stronger here than expected!

I thought 'Debby' back in '61 brought stronger gusts to NI? (over 100mph)

According to wikipedia - yes, but maybe they aren't official or something. I'm not sure! Hopefully get some kind of confirmation later! The Met Office seem pretty confident:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/storm-ali-and-the-week-to-come

"A wind gust of 91 mph has already been recorded in Killowen in County Down in Northern Ireland, the strongest wind gust in September in Northern Ireland since records began in 1880’s."

Gust of 102 mph recorded on the Tay Bridge at 3pm! There was also a gust of 127 mph on Cairngorm summit at 1pm.

Most of the strongest winds seem to have occurred shortly after the front cleared through and the wind veered into the southwest.

I think Sunday is looking worse for the bulk of the country?

If you have produce that could end up a casualty I'd be thinking about taking what you can before Sunday!

Storm Ali definitely packed a punch and worthy of being named. Even a large tree down in Chigwell , Essex I drove past earlier. I don't mind the whole naming storm thing as long as they're significant like today. There were a few named storms last year that were barely noticeable 

I know there's quite a lot of discussion about the weekend but tomorrow night could be unusually bad in the southern half of the UK. 12z ICON and Arpege runs both suggest serious disruption is possible.

PS: I expect the Met to go orange quite soon.