London, Thanasis Gavos

Orange and yellow warnings for heavy, continuous rain and strong winds have been issued by the Met Office in the UK as powerful Storm Ciaran approaches Great Britain.

The warnings concern primarily the south coast of England, where winds of up to 100 miles per hour are expected from early Wednesday evening, and rain levels of up to 80 millimeters in places.

Train companies have advised against travel, airlines have warned of possible flight cancellations and forecasters have warned of damage, power outages, uprooted trees, flying objects that could cause injuries, and flooding that could threaten lives.

The Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey have been ordered to stay indoors. Police in Jersey have issued a red alert for fear of extensive damage and injuries, while in Guernsey panic shopping ahead of the bad weather has led to empty supermarket shelves.

Already the storm has caused problems and flooding in Northern Ireland and brought some early heavy rain to southern England.

Fears are also being raised about the situation in Scotland, where there is still standing water from the deadly passage of Storm Babette a week and a half ago.

Yellow warnings for rain and wind for southern England and Wales are in effect from 6pm local time on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday. For dawn and Thursday morning the warning has been upgraded to orange for winds in south-west and south England, as well as Wales.

At least 150 flood warnings are also in place in England, Wales and Scotland.

According to forecasters, Storm Ciaran could turn out to be one of the strongest storms the UK has ever experienced in the month of November.