Tropical Storm Leslie which was expected to bring gale force winds and heavy rain to the country has been upgraded to a hurricane today.

It is gathering strength off the coast of Bermuda with Carlow Weather saying the long-range forecasts show it will hit the west of the country next Thursday, but not to "be worrying about it for now anyway".

GFS long range charts shows remains of #Leslie off the West coast of Ireland but ECMWF keeps it down spinning around in the Atlantic near the Azores, I wouldn’t be worrying about it for now anyway. pic.twitter.com/IWg2Ypadza

— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) October 2, 2018

Storm Leslie has a max sustained speed of 105kph, but this will die down before it reaches Ireland.

Forecasters in the Met Office are watching its development, however, the National Hurricane Centre has suggested it could make a U-turn and head towards the UK and Ireland.

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