The United Kingdom is currently in the grip of severe storm called Eunice, and this viral footage of an unfortunate flying wheelie bin is doing the rounds.

that bin was flying wheelie high💨 pic.twitter.com/BO6ofhJNhp

— Bally Singh (@putasinghonit) February 17, 2022

The video shows the airborne plastic garbage receptacle caught in a swirling updraft similar to what Australians call a "willy-willy".

So you'd pretty much have to call it... drum roll... a "wheelie-wheelie".

Bad puns aside, it's unclear where or when the footage of the bin was captured, but the likelihood is that it's from an outbreak of severe storms that occurred around London in June, 2021, and not from the current wild weather in the UK.

So what's with the current wild UK weather?

Since October 2013, when a severe storm killed 17 people in northern Europe, the UK Met Office has named winter storms, just as our Bureau of Meteorology names Tropical Cyclones.

A storm earns a name when forecasters believe it will have a "substantial" impact on the UK or Ireland. Storm Eunice certainly meets that criteria, with snow in the north – especially in the Scottish highlands – and wild winds across the entire UK, strongest in the south.

A Met Office "Red Warning" is current, which is the highest warning level. It says:

Storm Eunice causing significant disruption and dangerous conditions due to extremely strong winds on Friday.

What to expect:

• Flying debris resulting in danger to life
• Damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down
• Uprooted trees are likely
• Roads, bridges and railway lines closed, with delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights
• Power cuts affecting other services, such as mobile phone coverage
• Large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and homes, including flooding of some coastal properties

You can see the extremely strong winds illustrated well on the current surface chart for the region.

Note that purple and blue shading indicates winds in excess of 100 km/h. So you can see that Ireland, Wales and parts of the English and Scottish coastlines are being battered by extremely strong winds.

The situation is expected to ease, albeit only slightly, as the weekend progresses. The wheelie bins and their bin liners will be "glad" about that.