Storm Eowyn plunged 400,000 homes into darkness and left 138,000 without water last night as its lethal 114mph winds and torrential downpours battered the UK.
The tempest continues to rage this morning meaning flooding and travel disruption are possible throughout the weekend.
Millions of Brits have been advised to batten down the hatches and stay at home with Met Office warnings issued for snow, ice, wind and rain until Monday.
Up to 80mm of rainfall could be seen in parts of England and Wales with several amber and yellow weather warnings issued by the Met Office over Saturday and Sunday.
It comes after winds reached 100mph on Friday as the storm left one person dead, more than a million people without power and caused travel chaos across the UK and Ireland.
On Sunday, a yellow wind warning covering south-west England, English and Scottish coasts around the Irish Sea, Wales and Northern Ireland will be in place from 8am to 3pm, with 50 to 60mph gusts expected widely in the warning area.
A yellow rain warning covering southern and central England and Wales will also be in place from 8am on Sunday to 6am on Monday.
Firemen secure a house in Belfast that was damaged by the winds of Storm Eowyn yesterday
A vehicle drives as waves crash over the seafront in Oban as Storm Eowyn hits Scotland yesterday
Some places could see up to 80mm of rainfall over the period from two separate spells of heavy rain and thundery showers, while 10 to 20mm should fall quite widely and 30 to 50mm could fall over high ground.
Flooding to homes and businesses could occur in the warning area, with power cuts and difficult driving conditions also possible.
There is also a ‘small chance’ of fast flowing or deep floodwater causing danger to life, the Met Office said.
Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said: ‘Looking at Sunday, it’s set to be a fairly fine start for a lot of areas – another ridge of high pressure building in to keep things fairly settled, with some sunny spells in there.
‘The cloud, though, is going to be building as we see a low pressure system move into the South West. This will be bringing heavy rain in for south-west England and Wales from sort of mid-morning onwards, and then that will spread into Northern Ireland and northern England as we head later on into the afternoon.
‘Winds will also be picking up with this feature. Certainly, it’s not going to be as strong as Storm Eowyn.
‘However, because it’s coming in from the South West, it’s going to be actually more southern areas of England that are going to see the strongest wind gusts compared to what has mostly been further towards the north.’
An amber wind warning covering northern Scotland expires at 6am on Saturday, while a yellow wind warning covering the majority of Scotland will be in place until 3pm.
A Nissan Micra car is demolished under a pile of bricks on Newcastle Road in Sunderland yesterday
A person holding their hat on their head on a windswept Tynemouth Longsands beach yesterday
Those in the warning areas have been advised to secure loose items such as bins, garden furniture and trampolines outside their homes.
Yellow snow and ice warnings are in place in Northern Ireland until 10am on Saturday and in Scotland until 11am, with injuries from slips and falls on icy surfaces possible.
Up to 10cm of snow could develop on high ground in Scotland throughout the morning.
A yellow ice warning covering parts of south-west England, the Midlands and southern and mid-Wales will be in place from 3am to 10am.
‘From daytime tomorrow onwards, the start of Saturday is quite a nice one for more central and southern areas of the UK,’ Mr Vautrey said.
‘There’s going to be a lot of sunshine around, relatively calm winds as a transient ridge of high pressure builds its way in, and so for a lot of people away from those still ongoing winds across northern Scotland, Saturday will generally be quite a reasonable day.’
ScotRail said all services across Scotland would remain suspended until midday on Saturday at the earliest.
A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire in Scotland on Friday, the Met Office said, while a record-breaking wind speed of 183kmh (114mph) was measured in Mace Head, Co Galway in Ireland, Met Eireann said.
NIE Networks said around 214,000 homes and businesses remained without power in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Government said 106,000 properties were without power in Scotland late on Friday evening.
A dog struggling in Storm Eowyn yesterday morning as it hit Blackpool in Lancashire
More than 1,100 flights were cancelled on Friday, with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow airports the worst affected.
Travel mayhem will continue on Saturday, with trains in Scotland not expected to restart until at least 12pm tomorrow after every ScotRail service was axed yesterday.
The Met Office said the strongest winds will have cleared the UK last night although Scotland will still see gusty conditions today.
It comes as:
Meanwhile Craig Revel Horwood revealed Friday night’s Strictly Come Dancing live show in Glasgow had been postponed due to the storm forcing people to stay indoors.
The Strictly judge confirmed that the show will take place on Sunday evening instead.
Rail services and flights were axed during the storm yesterday as 114mph winds hit the British Isles causing a danger to life as people were urged to stay at home.
Some 20 per cent of all flights scheduled to or from UK or Irish airports were cancelled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium which said a total of 1,070 had been cancelled – with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow worst affected.
The top UK wind gust was 100mph at Drumalbnin in South Lanarkshire, followed by 96mph at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, 93mph at Aberdaron in Gwynedd, Wales, and 92mph at Killowen in County Down, Northern Ireland – while the 114mph at Mace Head in the Republic of Ireland was the country’s fastest ever.
A bus stop in Galway, Ireland,was destroyed yesterday due to Storm Eowyn
Helensburgh swimming pool roof is ripped apart as Storm Eowyn hit Scotland yesterday
Hundreds of schools closed in Scotland, Wales and northern England during the storm – while 715,000 homes, farms and businesses were without power across the Republic of Ireland, and a further 240,000 homes and business in Northern Ireland suffered cuts.
The Isle of Man’s Department of Infrastructure declared a major incident because of the number of fallen trees and their impact on arterial roads and emergency services.
Train operator ScotRail suspended all services across Scotland, insisting it ‘would not be safe to operate passenger services due to forecast weather conditions’.
The railway operator later added that it will not know the full extent of the damage to its tracks and overhead lines until Network Rail carries out a full assessment, a process ScotRail says will ‘take quite a bit of time’.
Workers are expected to start clearing fallen trees and other debris that has landed on the tracks. As a result, all ScotRail services will be suspended until at least 12pm today.
On Friday other train companies including LNER, Avanti West Coast, Lumo, CrossCountry and Grand Central told customers not to travel on routes across parts of North Wales, Scotland and northern England with no Anglo-Scots services.
The worst-hit airports in the UK and Ireland in terms of number of cancellations yesterday were Dublin (120 departures, 110 arrivals), Edinburgh (85 departures, 80 arrivals), Heathrow (51 departures, 62 arrivals) and Glasgow (44 departures, 43 arrivals).
A satellite view of Storm Eowyn at 2.30pm yesterday afternoon as it sweeps over the UK and Ireland
Others affected included Belfast International (16 departures and 16 arrivals), Belfast City (23 departures and 20 arrivals) and Aberdeen (25 departures and 25 arrivals).
Hundreds of passengers also spent hours on flights which returned to their points of departure after being unable to land at their planned destinations.
Ryanair flight RK596 from London Stansted to Edinburgh reached the Scottish capital’s airport but could not touch down safely.
After circling over the Borders it returned to Stansted, landing two hours and 44 minutes after taking off.
Online systems initially showed the flight was diverting to Cologne, Germany.
Dramatic videos showed planes struggling to land and wheelie bins blown across streets in the strong winds.
One extraordinary clip captured a miraculous escape when a man narrowly avoided being hit by a falling roof tile in his garden in the Andersonstown area of Belfast .
Other videos showed TV presenters struggling to stand up while delivering reports, garden trampolines being blown away and telegraph poles dancing in the winds.
It comes after supermarket shelves were cleared in parts of Edinburgh amid reports of panic buying before the storm hit as people stocked up on food and other provisions.
The storm name Eowyn – pronounced ‘A-yo-win’ – is also found in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, where it is the name of a noblewoman from the kingdom of Rohan.
A tree which fell into a house and garden on Cyprus Avenue in east Belfast yesterday
A fallen tree and pole on Grove Park Drive in Dublinyesterday as Storm Eowyn strikes Ireland
People view large waves as Storm Eowyn arrives at Porthcawl in Wales yesterday
An aerial view of flooded fields at Axminster in Devon yesterday after the River Axe burst its banks
A crashed lorry on the A19 northbound near Seaham in County Durham in strong winds yesterday
Strong waves crash into Whitehaven in Cumbria yesterday as Storm Eowyn arrived in the UK
A tree is uprooted on a residential street in Walsall in the West Midlands yesterday
A man finds a trampoline in a car park in Partick, Glasgow, as the storm hits Scotland yesterday
Cars damaged by a falling roof yesterday outside a dealership in Helensburgh, Scotland
A fallen tree across the North Road in east Belfast yesterday morning as Storm Eowyn strikes
A member of the public battles against the wind on George Street in Edinburgh yesterday
Passengers wait for updates at London Heathrow Airport yesterday as some flights were cancelled
A bus shelter in Belfast is pictured yesterday morning after it was damaged during Storm Eowyn
Helensburgh swimming pool roof is ripped apart as Storm Eowyn hits Scotland yesterday
Two women brave the wind as Storm Eowyn hits the country at Cleveleys near Blackpool yesterday
Men look at a fallen tree following Storm Eowyn in Leixlip, Kildare, near Dublin yesterday afternoon
Commuters look at the departure boards at King’s Cross railway station in London yesterday
Tree surgeons cut and remove a fallen tree which is blocking the road in Liverpool yesterday
A person walks on the street near the seaftont in Oban as Storm Eowyn hits Scotland yesterday
A fallen tree on a van in Helensburgh, Scotland, yesterday as Storm Eowyn brings strong winds
Torrential rain and strong winds in Edinburgh city centre yesterday as Storm Eowyn arrives
Damage to car and a fallen tree through the roof of a house in Newtownabbey yesterday
A woman struggles to hold an umbrella in strong winds as Storm Eowyn hits Edinburgh yesterday
A Nissan Micra car is demolished under a pile of bricks on Newcastle Road in Sunderland yesterday
Parts of a wall of a house in Belfast fell down in strong winds brought by Storm Eowyn yesterday
Passengers at Edinburgh Airport yesterday, where 74 departures and 72 arrivals were axed
People view large waves as Storm Eowyn arrives at Porthcawl in Wales yesterday
A plane lands in strong winds at London Heathrow Airport as Storm Eowyn hit Britain
Good Morning Britain reporter Nick Dixon was battered by strong winds while reporting yesterday
The storm hits Portreath in Cornwall yesterday, bringing high winds and rough seas
A fence and a mobile toilet blown over by the wind as Storm Eowyn hits Blackpool yesterday
Collapsed scaffolding blocking Harold’s Cross Road in Dublin as the storm hits
Cars damaged by a falling roof outside a dealership in Helensburgh, Scotland
People try to shelter from the wind as they walk through Central London
The frontage of a Marks & Spencer in Irvine, North Ayrshire, is blown away by the winds
Torrential rain and strong winds in Edinburgh city centre as Storm Eowyn arrives
People walking their dogs at Tynemouth Longsands beach in North Tyneside
Commuters are battered by strong winds as they cross Westminster Bridge in London
A fallen tree across the North Road in east Belfast as Storm Eowyn strikes
An ice skating facility in Blanchardstown near Dublin was destroyed by strong winds
Waves break against a sea wall at Carnlough on the north east coast of Northern Ireland
Met Office chief meteorologist Jason Kelly said yesterday morning: ‘Storm Eowyn is now bringing very strong winds to parts of the UK.
‘There is potential for gusts of 100mph in exposed locations within the Red warning area. Anyone in these red and amber warning areas should listen to advice from local responders and keep up to date with weather warnings for their area.’
A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbnin in South Lanarkshire yesterday afternoon and was Eowyn’s strongest in the UK, the Met Office said.
Elsewhere, wind speeds reached 96mph at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland; 93mph at Aberdaron in Gwynedd, North Wales; 92mph at Killowen, County Down in Northern Ireland; 87mph at Capel Curig in Conwy, north Wales; 86mph at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, north Wales; 86mph at Dundrennan in Kirkcudbrightshire, south-west Scotland; 85mph at Thomastown in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland; and 85mph at Orlock Head in County Down, also in Northern Ireland.
The strongest gust ever recorded in the UK is 142 mph, at Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire in eastern Scotland, on February 13, 1989.
Eowyn was so severe that it knocked some weather stations in western Ireland offline, meaning the full extent of powerful winds on Friday is not yet known.
Despite the extreme gusts, thousands of wind turbines were switched off during the storm because the power would overwhelm the UK’s electricity grid, according to The Telegraph.
BBC weather presenter Judith Ralston described the storm as a ‘once in a generation’ event. The corporation’s weather service had previously warned that Eowyn would be the ‘storm of the century’ for Ireland.
Passengers wait for updates at London Heathrow Airport as some flights are cancelled
A member of the public battles against the wind on George Street in Edinburgh
A roof blown off during strong winds rests on bungalows in Amble, Northumberland,
An ice skating facility in Blanchardstown near Dublin was destroyed by strong winds
A tree which has fallen into a house and garden on Cyprus Avenue in east Belfast
Workers clear fallen trees blocking the M2 motorway to Belfast during Storm Eowyn
Helensburgh swimming pool roof is ripped apart as Storm Eowyn hits Scotlan
Tree surgeons cut and remove a fallen tree which is blocking the road in Liverpool
A warning sign is displayed on a screen at London King’s Cross railway station this afternoon
Scaffolding sheeting is damaged by the wind on North Finchley High Road in London
A crashed lorry on the A19 northbound near Seaham in County Durham in strong winds
A person works to clear fallen trees from the road at Feighcullen in Ireland
A bus drives around bins blown over by the winds on Princes Street in Edinburgh
A fallen tree at the Cherryvale playing fields in Belfast as Storm Eowyn arrives
An ice skating facility in Blanchardstown near Dublin was destroyed by strong winds
A person goes for a walk in the heavy rain in Scotland as Storm Eowyn hits Britain
Damage to car and a fallen tree through the roof of a house in Newtownabbey
The storm hits Portreath in Cornwall this morning, bringing high winds and rough seas
Torrential rain and strong winds in Edinburgh city centre as Storm Eowyn arrives
An aerial view of flooded fields at Axminster in Devon after the River Axe burst its banks
A view of a deserted Princes Street in Edinburgh during Storm Eowyn
The storm hits Portreath in Cornwall bringing high winds and rough seas
Thames Water roadworks fencing was blown over in Eltham, south-east London
Supermarket shelves were cleared in parts of Edinburgh amid panic buying reports
