Second storm with high winds to hit U.K.

Forecasters Friday predicted another round of high winds would hit Britain just days after hurricane-force gusts of 165 mph caused chaos. Forecasters issued an alert for a second storm Monday night with strong winds, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday. "What is interesting about this next storm is that the huge weather system that slammed into Scotland on Thursday was very constrained; its damage was limited to Scotland," meteorologist Tim Ballisty at weather.com said. "However, next week's storm looks likely to cover the whole of the U.K.; it is tremendously wide and has a much broader scope to it." Winds in the Scottish Highlands were clocked at 165 mph Thursday as an unusual storm battered much of northern Britain. In Scotland the winds brought trees down, stripped Aberdeen of its Christmas decorations and left 60,000 people without power, The Scotsman reported. The Met Office issued its first-ever "red alert" Wednesday. Meteorologists said the wind was caused by an "explosive deepening," a sharp drop in atmospheric pressure within a span of 24 hours that is also known as a "weather bomb," The Guardian said. Police advised everyone to get off the roads in central Scotland, but many drivers ignored the advice. Overturned trucks were scattered along highways and all travel was disrupted -- with ferry services canceled, Edinburgh Airport closed and train speed limits reduced, the Scotsman reported. Passengers in one train were stranded when the West Highland line was shut down. About 75 percent of the schools in Scotland were closed. The wind also caused problems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Guardian reported. Wind speeds were measured as high as 81 mph in Wales and northwest England. Ferries from Northern Ireland were canceled or delayed and cross-Channel services to France were disrupted. The Pride of Hull, arriving in Hull from Rotterdam with more than 300 passengers, was unable to dock.