An emergency alert has been sent to millions of people in Scotland ahead of a rare red weather warning. People with compatible mobile phones living in the 22 council areas of the country expected to be worst hit by the storm received the alert at approximately 18:00.

Find out which are shut near you amid rare red weather warnings - Northern Ireland closes all of its schools and many in Scotland and Northumberland are forced to shut

Scotland is braced for what could be one of the worst storms in recent memory, as extremely rare Status Red weather warnings have been issued across Ireland and Britain.