Today's sunny weather in the south east will be blown away by powerful winds overnight as the storm moves in from the west coast.
Storm Helene will then take hold of most of the country, causing yellow weather warnings to be issued for Monday and Tuesday.
The warnings issued this morning encompass larger areas of the UK than meteorologists previously thought the storm would hit.
Commuters and motorists have been warned to prepare for disruption in the wake of the powerful storm.
A Met Office spokesperson said: "Expect potential for delays to road, rail, air and ferry transports.
"Buses and trains could also take longer."
The Met Office says that Wales, the Midlands and much of northern England could be affected.
The main concern is that trees uprooted by Storm Helene may cause some areas to have face power outages in addition to travel problems.
The Met Office said: "Power services are perhaps a bit more vulnerable because we’ve got trees that are still in-leaf and wind speeds of a certain magnitude can have more of an impact on trees when they’re in-leaf.
"That can be a hazard because if you have trees in full-leaf then they can be more affected by the wind because it’s more like a sail.
"And when they come down they can obviously affect power supplies."
The storm is expected to affect the East and West Midlands and the east of England.
A separate windstorm later in the week on Wednesday will continue to batter the west coast even after Storm Helene clears.
The Met Office said: "In some ways the winds from that look as though at the moment that they could be a bit more significant than Helene.
"We are looking at a potential warning for that."
Between Storm Helene tonight and the further winds on Wednesday, most of the country will have a wet and blustery week.
Rain is forecast to fall tomorrow from Cornwall to Yorkshire though temperatures will remain mostly in the teens and low 20s.
The Met Office say that Helene's tropical hurricane origins made forecasts late last week look more serious than the latest data now suggests, but a larger area will be affected by the storm.
Helene was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm by meteorologists who have tracked its progress across the Atlantic.
The met office said: "Probably the most noticeable thing really is the warm air."
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