Disruption likely as yellow rain warning put in place

Heavy and persistent rain could bring flooding and disruption to parts of Northern Ireland from Friday night.

A yellow weather warning for rain has been issued from 00:01 BST on Saturday to 12:00 on Saturday by the Met Office.

Up to 30mm of rain is expecting to fall quite widely but areas to the south and east could get even more.

The organisation said Belfast and parts of County Down could get up to 60mm of rain, with as much as 30mm falling in just a few hours.

As well as the rain there will be some unseasonably strong winds with gusts up to 55km/h (35mph) quite widely.

There is a risk in some areas, especially along the east coast, with gusts of up to 80km/h (50mph) expected.

The heaviest and most persistent rain is expected through the early hours of Saturday morning before gradually improving later in the morning.

It is expected to stay unsettled through the day with sunny spells and some heavy, and blustery showers.

This comes after Northern Ireland had its wettest July on record, with figures going back to 1836, according to the Met Office.

Provisional figures showed more than double the normal amount of rain fell during the month, with 185.4mm recorded.

The previous record was 185.2mm, set back in July 1936.

The bad weather has already contributed to a drop in footfall according to business owners on the north coast.

Sean McLaughlin owns a fish and chip restaurant and says the weather has added to a “perfect storm”.

“We’ve just come off the back of a really tough winter with price increases, energy costs, all those things,” he said.

“We were expecting a bumper summer with decent weather and more people coming around, but sadly we’ve hit the wettest July we’ve ever seen.”

Mr McLaughlin said carparks and caravan sites have been relatively empty in the town when they’re normally full.

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“It’s this time of year where we should see more tourists coming in and it’s just been the total opposite” he said.

Meanwhile, Tanya Gillen, who owns a café in the seaside hotspot, said she also experienced a particularly poor season.

“Where we’re located, people are not coming off the main drag to the Arcadia if the weather’s not good,” she said.

“Maybe it is a combination of the weather and the cost-of-living crisis everyone is talking about.”

She said seasonable businesses on the north coast normally rely on a busy July but this year has been different.

“July is normally the month we see our tills go up, but our tills are down by 50%,” Ms Gillen continued.

“Our problem is we guarantee our workers so many hours a week so regardless of whether we’re busy or not, we’re still paying for staff.”