LONDON — Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the U.K. were urged to stay at home Friday as hurricane-force winds disabled power networks and brought widespread travel disruptions.

Forecasters issued a rare “red” weather warning, meaning danger to life, across the whole island of Ireland and central and southwest Scotland.

Ireland was hit with wind gusts of 183 kilometres an hour overnight, the strongest since the Second World War, as a winter storm spiralled in from the Atlantic before hitting Scotland.