Storm Éowyn ‘probably strongest’ to hit UK in 10 years, says Met Office

Storm Éowyn was “probably the strongest storm” to hit the UK in at least 10 years, the Met Office has said, with wind gusts in excess of 100mph.

At the storm’s height, nearly a million properties were without power across the British Isles, while many road and rail links were blocked. A 20-year-old man was killed when a tree fell on his car in Ireland as winds reached a record 114mph (183 km/h).

Parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland suffered widespread property damage and Network Rail Scotland logged nearly 400 damage incidents.

While the worst of the storm has passed, strong winds are expected to continue into next week.

While the amber and red warnings the Met Office issued ahead of Éowyn’s arrival have elapsed, several lesser, yellow weather warnings for wind and rain remain in place into Sunday. A full and up-to-date list can be found here.

Parts of England and Wales could receive up to 80mm (3.15in) of rainfall over the weekend.

Met Office forecasters described Éowyn as “pretty exceptional” and the most intense storm for some areas of the UK for 20-30 years.

The man who died on Friday was named as Kacper Dudek. He was killed in County Donegal, which experienced the worst gusts. Irish police are investigating.

BBC Weather’s Helen Willetts said Éowyn had moved into the North Sea by Saturday morning – but severe weather was still possible in many areas of the British Isles.

“The early hours saw wind gusts in Fair Isle, Scotland, to 80mph but the day ahead will see the winds gradually easing,” she said.

Heavy showers, snow and squally winds will move into Northern Ireland by mid-afternoon on Saturday, and then into western England and Wales later, she added.

Gales are also expected to develop around the coasts and over hills.

In Ireland, 625,000 properties were without power as of Friday evening, with the nation’s grid operator describing the damage to electricity infrastructure as “unprecedented, widespread and extensive”.

While tens of thousands had been reconnected by Saturday morning, engineers said it could take a “significant number of days” for the grid to be fully repaired.

Loss of power to treatment plants and pumping stations has also caused water supply to be interrupted in several places, Irish Water said. As of Friday evening, it estimated 138,000 people were without water.

More than 77,000 properties were without power across the UK as of Saturday afternoon, according to tracker Power Outage – the vast majority being in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Electricity said it could take up to 10 days before all were back on the grid.

The infrastructure department said there were more than 1,800 incidents of fallen trees, branches and other debris blocking roads.

Paul Morrow, group commander at Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, told BBC Breakfast that what his crews were witnessing was “something we’ve never seen before”.

Northern Irish Education Minister Paul Givan said 60 schools had reported “significant damage to some buildings” and some may not be open on Monday.

And Celtic’s Scottish Premiership match against Dundee on Saturday was postponed because of damage to their stadium in Glasgow.

ScotRail said engineers worked through the night on Friday to clear trees and other debris from tracks. It reported “extensive damage” to overhead lines.

The East Coast Main Line reopened early on Saturday between Edinburgh and Newcastle after fallen trees were cleared, Network Rail Scotland said.

Edinburgh Airport said it would be operating under “challenging conditions” on Saturday, and that the disruption on Friday would have knock-on impact on services over the coming days.

Glasgow and Belfast International said passengers should continue to check the latest travel information with their airline before travelling.

CalMac, the main operator of ferries off Scotland’s west coast, said it was still experiencing some disruption on Saturday morning, although the majority of ferry crossings in the Irish Sea appeared to be operating normally.

National Rail said winds and rain would affect some services in northern England.

Passengers on Avanti West Coast are advised not to travel north of Preston.

Mark Jones, who lives in Coldingham in the Scottish Borders, described Éowyn hitting his area as like “an earthquake”.

On Friday morning, he saw his corrugated iron carport being lifted out of the ground and tipped into an area of woodland.

“I didn’t feel seriously alarmed because there was about 30ft between me and the carport and it just lifted up quite steadily and tilted over,” he recalled.

“I just think the word ‘storm’ is too mild for what we have witnessed here. Only a hurricane could do that.”

Liam Downs, an electrician from Cardross on the north side of the Firth of Clyde, said he had been driving along the coast removing trees from the road.

While going to check on a client, he saw “about 10 trees” fall within the space of 10 minutes which “completely blocked us”.

“As we were driving along the coast earlier, waves were coming up onto the road and my van literally went from being in the right lane to being up on the curb,” he said.

Additional reporting by George Wright and Lauren Turner.