To kick things off, a look at the winds for Friday. Note that I'm using mostly using MC charts as they are archived, rather than replaced with current ones each day.

MetO has the strongest winds affecting NI, northern England and southern Scotland. It's unusual for MetO to show this sort of strength at this range - there are widespread areas of 140-150km/h winds, which is the high 80s in MPH terms.

https://images.meteociel.fr/im/95/27873/ukmohd_uk1_11_87_0ulu8.png 

UKV is just a notch down, generally high 70s / low 80s instead, although there are the odd spots with high 80s:

The ICON "max gust" chart for Saturday morning shows the spread of the winds - as a reminder, the burgandy is 62 or higher, then each colour above that is about 6mph, meaning again there are widespread 70s and even 80s around:

https://images.meteociel.fr/im/87/19660/iconeu_uk1_52_99_0dxv4.png 

Arpege is a tad lower generally, a tapestry of 60s and low 70s, but just look at the winds over the Republic - white is 200km/h, or 124mph.

https://images.meteociel.fr/im/95/26763/arpegeuk_52_102_0mxt7.png 

And last but not least, GFS has swathes of 70s, with the odd 80:

https://images.meteociel.fr/im/94/18995/84_289UKcbs1.GIF 

I would expect an amber to be issued later today as a result - those winds will cause damage.

Wouldn't that be extraordinary, if it turns out like that. It's certainly looking possible.

It has gone from extremely windy, to incredibly windy.

But also further south taking the centre right through the middle of Scotland, previously it was predicted to pass by "harmlessly" off to the NW of the UK as a "classic" Icelandic depression. 

Regarding IMBY, it does look like Kent missing the worst of the storm but can still expect a short spell of strong gales, although it is looking like a daytime event rather than in the middle of the night.

The text for the latter suggests they're taking the higher values from the UKV and MetO models seriously:

"a spell of very strong winds is likely, initially southeasterly before turning westerly, with peak gusts of 60-70 mph inland and 80-90 mph along some coasts and hills (perhaps even higher in a few locations). "

Will be very boring one without snow involved but at least any rain cleared away there better chances of pleasant sunshine even if windy.

Widely in the 70s across the same swathe as shown in the 0z charts (from the other models) - but that swathe of winds hitting Ireland is truly ferocious.

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/windy.jpg 

Hopefully it will be toned down 

And the same model has Salthill, just outside of Galway City, having gust speeds of 85kts. or about 97mph. 

I would say this looks pretty bad and unusual for Northern England and the NW in particular if it comes off.  Be interesting to see whether this is overdoing it. Worth bearing in mind Liverpool Airport only reported 60mph during the last amber warning when the Merseyside Derby was cancelled which was less than some forecasts. 

Not a day for a gentle walk in the Lake District for sure!

The weather forecast just now on BBC Radio 4 said gusts of 100-120mph on the north west coast of Ireland on Friday.  The models and that forecast suggest you’re seriously underplaying this.

Fair enough, but I'm really only talking of my own very specific inland location. Exposed NW coasts always going to be more prone. And it remains to be seen if that BBC forecast lives up, or just another overhyped forecast which has become commonplace these days. 

Other models such as UKV are broadly similar, and I would be surprised if we didn't have an amber for the UK (and the equivalent in Ireland) issued later this morning.

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/windy2.jpg 

I certainly hope so. I'm really sick and tired of these awful wind storms. By far my least favourite kind of weather. 

There's already a MerEireann red warning for South West Ireland for Friday and an orange warning for the rest of RoI. I have a feeling that our Met hands out warnings a little more easily than yours, though.