One dead and more than a million without power

One person has died in Ireland and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power in the UK as Storm Éowyn brought record-breaking wind gusts.

A man died when a tree fell on his car in County Donegal, Gardaí (Irish police) said.

Ireland saw its strongest gusts ever recorded, and 725,000 properties there are without power.

Amber warnings remain in place in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, with millions of people urged to stay at home as gusts of 100mph (160km/h) were recorded.

One in five flights in the UK were cancelled and all trains halted in Scotland on Friday. Every school in Northern Ireland was closed as the storm damaged buildings and tore down trees.

Two red warnings were in force earlier on Friday in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.

Red is the most serious weather warning the Met Office can issue, meaning dangerous weather is expected and people are urged to take action to keep themselves and others safe.

There are also yellow warnings for wind, rain, snow and ice across the UK over the next few days.

Northern Ireland is in “the eye of the storm” with a real threat to life and property, First Minister Michelle O’Neill said.

The storm brought the strongest wind gusts in 27 years to Northern Ireland.

There are more than 280,000 properties without power in Northern Ireland – and the number is expected to rise, NIE Networks said.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney called the storm an “exceptional weather event” and said a “high level of vigilance” is still required.

Around 117,000 homes and businesses are without power across central and southern Scotland – and a further 5,000 in Wales, according to SP Energy Networks.

Thousands of homes were also without power in England across Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Cumbria. Electricity North West said it could take until Saturday evening to get power back in Cumbria.

There has been severe disruption at airports, with some 1,124 flights – one out of five – cancelled, affecting around 150,000 passengers, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium said.

Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow were the worst affected airports, it added.

A Ryanair flight that left Stansted Airport in Essex for Edinburgh reached the skies above the Scottish capital – but was unable to land and flew back to Stansted.

Bus and train services have been suspended in Northern Ireland, while supermarket chain Tesco said all its stores are closed and home deliveries also cancelled.

Glasgow and Edinburgh have closed all of their schools. There are around 30 schools shut across Northumberland, seven in Cumberland, and 50 in Wales.

Ferry operators also had to cancel numerous crossings.

In the Republic of Ireland, a gust of 114mph (183km/h) was recorded at Mace Head in County Galway. This makes it the strongest recorded gust of wind in Ireland.

The UK’s top wind gust speed of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire in Scotland.

The Irish Republic’s weather service Met Éireann has issued severe red weather warnings – with BBC Weather also saying it could be Ireland’s storm of the century.

The Republic of Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said there was “unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure” and it will take a “significant number of days” to restore power.

Connacht GAA’s Air Dome – an indoor playing facility in County Mayo in Ireland – was destroyed as winds ripped through the £2.6m facility.

Jake Kelly, from Network Rail, said no trains were running in the worst affected areas on Friday, including the whole of Scotland, as well as north of Preston on the west coast mainline in England and north of Newcastle on the east coast mainline.

“We expect a large amount of debris to be flying around and potentially trees to fall over,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“It’s always a very, very difficult decision to close the railway but in the face of this very extreme weather, ultimately we had no choice.”

Mr Kelly said closing the rail network across such a vast area was only done in the “most exceptional circumstances”.

ScotRail said customers should not expect any trains to run before 12:00 on Saturday.

Train operator Northern said many of its routes were closed, with some lines blocked between Manchester and Warrington because of a fallen tree.

There are 10 UK warnings currently issued:

• Amber warning for wind across all of Scotland, north-east England, north-west England and Northern Ireland from 06:00 to 21:00 on Friday
• Amber warning for wind across parts of Scotland from 13:00 on Friday to 06:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for wind across most of the country from midnight on Friday until 23:59 on Sunday
• Yellow warning for snow in parts of Scotland from 06:00 until 23:59 on Friday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice for Northern Ireland from 19:00 on Friday until 10:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for wind in parts of Scotland from midnight until 15:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice in parts of Scotland from midnight until 11:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for ice for Midlands, east and south-east England and Wales from 03:00 until 10:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for rain for Wales, Midlands, and most of England from 08:00 on Sunday until 06:00 on Monday
• Yellow warning for wind for south-east and the western side of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and south-west Scotland, from 08:00 until 15:00 on Sunday

Storm Éowyn – pronounced AY-oh-win – has been caused by powerful jet stream winds pushing low pressure towards the UK and Ireland over the Atlantic Ocean – after a recent cold spell over North America.

On its journey across the Atlantic, Storm Éowyn underwent a process known as “explosive cyclogenesis” – sometimes called a “weather bomb”.

This term is used to describe an area of low pressure that deepens by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. Storm Éowyn deepened by 50 millibars in 24 hours.

Explosive cyclogenesis is generally a sign of a storm that will bring extremely strong winds with damage and disruption.

It is also possible the west coast of Ireland has been hit by a “stingjet”.

This can occur in powerful storms where strong winds higher in the atmosphere are forced to the ground, resulting in wind speeds in excess of 100mph.

A stingjet can normally be detected on a satellite image as the hook – or sting in the tail – to the southern side of the storm.

They normally can last for three or four hours, bringing the most damaging winds.