LONDON (AP) — Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland are braced for one of the most intense storms in decades, with forecasters warning of extremely rare hurricane-force winds and a danger to life.
The national forecasters for Ireland and the U.K. both issued the most serious weather warnings Thursday about the impact of Storm Éowyn, which is expected to hit the Irish coast in the early hours of Friday before heading northeast to Scotland.
With the storm bringing gusts of wind around 100 mph (161 kph), people have been urged by authorities to put on hold any travel plans, while schools across the areas affected have decided to close for the day.
Ireland’s Met Éireann issued a rare nationwide red warning for wind across the country between 2 a.m. and 10 p.m. It said there’s a possible “danger to life” as well as “extremely dangerous traveling conditions” and the prospect of coastal flooding.
“We haven’t seen forecasted wind speeds like this in quite a long time," said Eoin Sherlock of Met Éireann. “I suppose our inhabitants on the islands have to take great care, because we would expect hurricane-force winds.”
The country's National Emergency Co-ordination Group said the storm will be one of the “most severe” Ireland has experienced.
The U.K.’s Met Office has also issued a red warning for wind for Northern Ireland as well as central and southwestern areas of Scotland on Friday.
In response, the government said around 4.5 million people in the path of the storm will receive an emergency alert on their cellphones Thursday at 6 p.m. to make them aware of the warning. It represents the largest real-life use of the emergency system to date and will cause phones to make a loud siren-like sound, even if they are on silent when the alert is issued.
“We reserve the issuing of Red Warnings for the most severe weather which represents a likely danger to life and severe disruption, and that is the case with Storm Éowyn," the agency's chief meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.
Gundersen said winds could gust 80-90 m.p.h. quite widely for a time, and potentially up to 100 m.p.h. for exposed coasts in particular. The record for a gust in Northern Ireland is 124 m.p.h. in County Down in January 1974.
This is the first red warning issued for Northern Ireland since the Met Office moved to impact-based warnings in 2011. All schools in Northern Ireland have been advised to close on Friday.
“It’s important to emphasize that a red warning is very serious. It's only whenever there is a genuine threat to life and potential damage to property, and the public should expect significant disruption to travel and also potential power outages because of the severity of conditions," Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill said.
The Met Office warning applies on Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Northern Ireland and for parts of southern Scotland between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Scotland's First Minister John Swinney said police would issue a formal “do not travel” notice later for the area covered by the red weather warning.
“We have to be clear. People should not travel," he said.
Schools in a number of Scottish local authorities will be closed on Friday, including all schools in Glasgow. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh will also close.
The other nations of the U.K. — England and Wales — will also face disruption, with all parts of the country covered by one warning at some point on Friday.
“It’s important to note that even those away from the immediate Red Warning areas will still likely see disruptive weather, with travel plans likely to be severely impacted, as well as the possibility of power cuts for some," said the Met Office's Gundersen.
Part of the storm's energy originated with the system that brought historic snowfall along the Gulf Coast of the U.S., said Jason Nicholls, lead international forecaster at the private weather company AccuWeather.
The storm is being propelled by the jet stream and is being fed by energy in upper levels of the atmosphere. A rapid drop in air pressure is expected and could make Éowyn a bomb cyclone, which happens when a storm’s pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours.
Scientists say pinpointing the exact influence of climate change on a storm is challenging, but all storms are happening in an atmosphere that is warming abnormally fast due to human-released pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane.
“It’s hard to say if climate change had much impact on the storm," said Nicholls. “It was just a matter of a whole bunch of ingredients coming together to help it rapidly strengthen.”
Suzanne Gray, professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, said “the observed trends in U.K. storminess have not provided a conclusive link with climate change," but that studies have shown that "winter storms may become more frequent and clustered in the future, such that several storms occur one after the other.”
Isabella O'Malley contributed from Philadelphia, PA.
A person wheels a bike on the Great South Wall on a sunny winter's day in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)
BRUSSELS (AP) — The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes across the Middle East are quickly dragging Europe in, forcing the continent into defensive action to protect military bases and evacuate citizens caught up in the conflict.
The Middle East is home to some of Europe's key trading partners, and a number of strategic trading routes. Many Europeans live in cities such as Beirut, Dubai or Jerusalem, while large communities from countries including Turkey, Egypt and the Gulf states have settled across Europe. Europeans weren’t consulted on this U.S.-Israeli operation but are now dealing with the fallout.
While refusing to directly join the war, Britain, France and Germany have said they would work with the United State to help stop Iran’s attacks. The U.K. will allow U.S. forces to use British bases to attack Iran’s missiles and launch sites.
But Europe itself is not immune. Cyprus, holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, had to insist that it was not involved in the conflict after a Shahed-type drone damaged a U.K. air base on the island’s southern coast over the weekend. The Shaheds were developed by Iran but have already been used in Europe, by Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Wary of other attacks at home, some European countries are also beefing up security at train stations and airports.
Still, almost no European leader has criticized the U.S.-Israeli attacks. Many are satisfied to see the downfall of an Iranian regime that has for years arrested European citizens and challenged Europe’s economic interests.
Spain has been a rare dissenting voice. “One can be against a hateful regime,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Sunday, “and at the same time, be against a military intervention that is unjustifiable, dangerous and outside of international law.”
At the same time, helping to foster stability in the volatile Middle East region is a European priority. Fears over a sustained hike in oil prices, and the possibility of a new wave of unpredictable migration mean that the continent must remain involved.
Europe’s major short-term priority is ensuring the safety of thousands of citizens caught up in the war as it spreads.
Concerns about getting people out were raised during an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers over the weekend. No joint evacuation effort was launched, but one could be needed imminently.
Germany says that about 30,000 German tourists are stuck on cruise ships, in hotels or at closed airports and cannot get back home because of the conflict. Most of them are in the Middle East but some are further afield, stranded because their travel connections run through Abu Dhabi, Qatar or Dubai. A military evacuation was not possible due to airspace closures.
The Czech Republic, meanwhile, has sent two planes to Egypt and Jordan to bring home Czech nationals, dozens of whom have traveled by bus from Israel. Another four planes were to be sent to Oman to pick up more of the estimated 6,700 Czechs in the region.
Iran has been threatening ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, and ships have been attacked there. Calls have mounted for the EU to help protect merchant vessels.
In response, France was sending two more warships to beef up Operation Aspides, the bloc’s naval mission in the region. But they would only deploy to the distant Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — gateways to the Suez Canal, which links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean — to join three other ships already in place.
Operation Aspides was set up two years ago, to help defend maritime traffic against possible attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen. But while the Houthis have expressed support for Iran, they did not immediately announce any military action on its behalf.
Discussion is underway on a review of the operation’s mandate and a possible toughening of its rules of engagement, but no changes are expected soon.
Maintaining stability in the wider Middle East is a key European concern. Iran’s acts of retaliation in several countries have been widely condemned.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is expected to convene a meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council countries at foreign minister level later this week, as the bloc continues to try to reassure Iran’s neighbors and other vulnerable countries nearby.
“Iran’s attacks of a number of countries in the Middle East are inexcusable. The events must not lead to further escalation that could threaten the region, Europe and beyond, with unpredictable consequences,” Kallas said after chairing Sunday’s emergency talks.
The EU intends to drive diplomatic efforts to help reduce tensions, and still aims to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons despite its nuclear development deal falling apart after the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an interview that the United States’ and Israel’s war against Iran is crucial for security in Europe. He said the allies could support the effort even without direct involvement in military operations, through logistics and access.
Rutte, a former prime minister of the Netherlands, said he unreservedly approves of Trump’s decision to attack Iran and kill its supreme leader, raising the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
“It would be a stranglehold on Israel. It could potentially mean Israel’s defeat,” Rutte told German public broadcaster ARD in its Brussels studio on Monday.
When asked the possibility of NATO entering the war, Rutte said absolutely no one believed that NATO would be involved. “This is Iran, this is the Gulf, this is outside NATO territory,” he said.
NATO troops deployed for 18 years to Afghanistan and its 2011 air campaign helped topple Libya’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Officials say the EU has no preferred candidate to take over in Tehran, and in any case it’s too early to tell who might be best to back as future leader. The foreign ministers primarily expressed “solidarity with the Iranian people.”
They offered support to “their fundamental aspirations for a future where their universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully respected.”
The Europeans insist that a genuine popular movement against the regime arose in recent months but that it was shut down in an unprecedented wave of violence. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands detained.
One thing is clear. The EU is unlikely to back any leadership pushed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The IRGC was added the bloc’s terror list last month, making it almost impossible for the Europeans to take them seriously as an interlocutor.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
A Fighter Jet takes off from the U.K.'s RAF Akrotiri air base after it was hit by a drone strike early morning near Limassol, Cyprus, Monday, March, 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A traveler checks departure times as many flights are cancelled at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, as many airlines canceled flights due to the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
