People in parts of the UK have been advised to "shelter in place" between 4pm and 6pm today due to Storm Amy.
The warning has come as the storm hits large parts of the UK and Ireland. Met Eireann, the Irish Met Office, has issued a red level weather warning for Co Donegal, Northern Ireland, for that period.
Speaking on RTE's News at One earlier, the national director of Ireland's emergency management unit, Keith Leonard, said: "If I had one key message, it would be for that period from 4pm to 6pm in Donegal this afternoon, to ask people to shelter in place for that amount of time and to be very careful on the roads before that warning comes into place and after it's gone through."
"Shelter in place" means to find a place of shelter in one’s present location and stay there until instructed otherwise. Mr Leonard said the storm will also feature "a lot of rainfall" and that fallen trees are likely to be an issue.
Yellow weather warnings were already in place for much of Scotland and Northern Ireland, with Storm Amy also due to bring high winds and rain to the rest of the UK into the weekend. A
As the first named storm of the season sweeps in from the Atlantic, schools in Northern Ireland have closed early and ferry sailings from the west of Scotland have been cancelled.
Heavy rain and strong winds of up to 100mph are expected in exposed coastal areas on Friday. The wet and windy conditions are expected to spread south later in the day, with all of the UK including southern England covered by yellow warnings for Saturday.