People have been warned to brace themselves as the Met Office issued another “threat to life” warning amid Storm Franklin.

The Met Office has issued an amber warning for wind which could cause a “risk to life” in Northern Ireland until 7am, while a milder yellow wind warning covers England, Wales and south-western Scotland from midday until 1pm.

Environment agencies have issued hundreds of alerts for flooding across the UK, including two rare “severe” warnings where rainfall could also pose a “danger to life” for communities along the River Mersey in Greater Manchester.

This comes after huge waves were seen crashing onto coastal areas, homes were destroyed by strong winds, and emergency services deployed flood defences along swelling riverbanks on Sunday.

The severe weather comes just days after Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice batter large parts of the UK which resulted in four deaths across the country.

Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said last week marked the first time three named storms have been recorded within seven days since the storm-naming system began in 2015, with Dudley, Eunice and Franklin.

She added that there will “definitely be some impact” from Storm Franklin on Monday but it is not expected to be “as severe” as Eunice because the strongest winds will be confined to the coast.

Storm Franklin sparks flood warnings across the UK

Katharine Smith, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, urged people to “stay away from swollen rivers” while teams deploy temporary barriers and pumps on the river.

“We advise people to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through flood water as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car,” she said.

“Residents close to the River Mersey are being warned to take immediate action and prepare for property flooding.”

Manchester City Council began evacuating affected residents on Sunday afternoon in advance of the rising waters.

On Friday, Storm Eunice caused what energy providers believe was a record national outage over a 24-hour period, with around 1.4 million homes losing power.

Ross Easton, director of external affairs at the Energy Networks Association (ENA), said 56,000 people were still without power on Sunday afternoon, and Storm Franklin will hamper recovery efforts on Monday.

The Environment Agency has also issued 183 warnings where “flooding is likely” for locations mainly in the north and west of England, and 172 alerts where “flooding is possible” for the north-western half of the UK, London and the south coast.

Some 18 flood warnings and seven alerts have been issued across the Scottish Borders, Ayrshire, Orkney and the Western Isles by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

Natural Resources Wales has issued 26 flood warnings and 47 alerts covering much of the country.