Passenger and freight ferry services between the Isle of Man and Lancashire have been disrupted due to expected gales brought by Storm Dudley.

The 08:45 GMT sailing of the Ben-my-Chree from Douglas to Heysham and its 14:15 return have been cancelled.

The evening journey and its overnight return are also in doubt, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company said.

Ronaldsway Met Office has warned of possible disruption on the roads, with gusts of 65mph (105km/h) expected.

Paul Mooney
BBC Weather

As the centre of Storm Dudley moves across the North of Scotland, here in the North East and Cumbria we’ll bear the brunt of the westerly winds on its southern flank later today and overnight.

With a Met Office amber warning in force from 14:00 until midnight, widespread gusts in the 60-70mph range are expected, with 80mph possible in exposed locations, such as high ground and parts of the Cumbrian coast perhaps.

Gusts of this strength are certainly enough to cause damage and travel disruption. In fact, they are likely to be of a similar strength many of us experienced during Storm Arwen in November.

However, Storm Arwen produced northerly winds which is an unusual direction for our part of the world and ice was a factor in the disruption caused.

Storm Dudley will result in westerly winds, which our infrastructure is more used to dealing with and, being milder, ice won’t be a major factor.

However, the winds will remain very strong right through the night and, even after Storm Dudley has cleared, we’re still not out of the woods, with Storm Eunice on the way for Friday.

This is expected to bring strong winds again, but the bigger issue then could be snowfall combining with the gusts, resulting in blizzard conditions at times.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

ScotRail service delivery director David Simpson told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that many services would be wound down and cease by 16:00.

He said: "Make sure you're home and safe by four o clock.

"We've got engineers on standby throughout the day, and have extra teams on during the night. We'll be out overnight checking routes where we can."

Mr Simpson said it was "unlikely" that there would be replacement bus services and urged passengers to check the ScotRail website , externaland app for service updates.

Most last services will depart between 14:00 and 15:30

ScotRail's managing director Alex Hynes later apologised for the timetable changes but said they were necessary to protect staff and customers.

Claire Marshall
Environment correspondent, BBC News

It is the untold story of the winter storms. More than eight million trees have been brought down and many are now threatened by another two named storms bearing down on Britain.

Forest managers warn that already "catastrophic" damage will be made worse by Storms Dudley and Eunice.

There are warnings that the heating climate is making our weather more severe and unpredictable, and that management and planting strategies must adapt more quickly.

Read more here.

Northern England is braced for two more storms set to bring disruptive winds of up to 90mph.

An amber wind warning , externalis in place for parts of the North East, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Lancashire from 14:00 GMT until midnight because of Storm Dudley.

There is then a yellow wind warning , externalfrom Thursday afternoon into Friday as Dudley leaves and Storm Eunice arrives.

Power firms said they were ready after previous storms such as Arwen, Malik and Corrie caused days of outages.

Northern Powergrid said there was a "relatively high likelihood that there will be some disruption to power supplies" but it was "ready to respond".

Image source, PA Media

Follow live updates on the storm which is scheduled to hit parts of the UK from 2pm on Wednesday.

An amber weather warning covers parts of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

Trains and ferry services have already been cancelled and some schools are sending pupils home early.