Residents in the north of England and Scotland are being told to brace themselves for high winds as the Met Office warned of gusts of up to 90mph, and the entire country is set to face a blustery week.

       The forecaster had issued a yellow alert for wind on Wednesday and Thursday for parts of Northern Ireland most of Scotland and the north of England, with the Met Office warning this could be upgraded.

       Weather experts are predicting the entire country is set to be battered by high winds, with Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan warning that “this whole week is going to see quite a disturbed weather pattern developing across the UK”.

       Forecasters have predicted that the worst of the wind looks likely to hit midweek, with a 24-hour weather warning coming into force from 6pm on Wednesday, stretching down from the Orkney Islands to parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire as a weather system moves in.

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       “That’s likely to bring some severe gales and possibly storm force winds to parts of this region. Western parts of Scotland look like bearing the brunt of the strongest winds, where we could see gusts of 80mph to 90mph on Wednesday night and Thursday morning,” Mr Morgan said.

       “That’s strong enough to bring some quite widespread disruption, and it’s an area of the country that’s seen several named storms this winter season already.”

       The meteorologist added that there was a possibility this could become a named storm itself, and closer to the time the warnings issued may need to be escalated.

       As part of the yellow wind warning, the forecaster said there was the potential of inland gusts of up to between 60mph and 70mph, with exposed coasts and hills seeing speeds reaching 90mph.

       “It’s not just going to be strong winds this week,” said Mr Morgan, who warned there could be snow in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, adding there was likely to be snow and ice warnings issued over the next few days.

       And the bad wintery weather was not just for the northern parts of the UK.

       “The southern parts of England and Wales will see their turn. It looks very, very windy in the south at this stage for Friday,” he said.

       “There could be some quite widespread travel disruption in parts of the UK through this week.”

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       He added: “All parts of the UK will see some very strong winds at times.

       “It’s Scotland and the North’s turn on Wednesday and into Thursday, and then it’s probably going to be the southern parts of England and Wales that will see the very strongest winds on Friday.”