HURRICANE force winds have been mistakenly forecasted for Leigh on the BBC today (Thursday).

The error is due to the BBC Weather website and app suffering a data fault issue.

The BBC weather website states that "hurricane force winds" are forecasted for the town, with the weather estimated to hit a high of ten degrees and low of six degrees today.

Presenter Matt Taylor said in a post on X: "Don't be alarmed folks - Hurricane Milton hasn't made it to us here in the UK! There's been a data glitch between our suppliers and the app/online. Folk are working to solve the issue."

BBC Weather apologised and said it is working hard to fix the problem.

In a statement, BBC Weather said: "We have an issue with some of the weather data from our forecast provider which is generating incorrect numbers and text on our BBC Weather app and website.

"It’s mainly been impacting wind readings but some temperatures are also displaying wrongly.

"We recognise there is huge interest in weather today and this is incredibly frustrating.

"We are really, really sorry about this and working very hard to fix the problem."

The Met Office said Florida's Hurricane Milton could bring uncertainty to the UK weather next week if its remnants end up in the Atlantic, but added it was "highly unlikely to reach the UK.