THE Met Office has issued a severe weather warning as strong winds are set to hit Barrow this week.

Winds reaching speeds of up 80mph are set to batter the South Cumbria area between 6am and midnight on Friday.

The Met Office's chief forecaster said: "A number of potentially vigorous low pressure systems are likely to move quickly towards north west Europe later this week.

"One of these, on Friday, may affect parts of the UK. However it is worth stressing that there are a number of scenarios in which the strongest winds miss the UK altogether. Even so, spells of wet and windy weather will be affecting many areas later this week."