Matthew Weaver in the Guardian (UK): The latest in this winter's series of damaging Atlantic storms has lashed Britain, causing fresh travel chaos on the roads and railways, cutting power to thousands of homes, and creating yet more flooding.Winds of up more than 90mph, heavy rain and high tides prompted the Environment Agency to issue six severe flood warning – meaning danger to life – all in south-west England, from Weymouth in Dorset to Land's End in Cornwall.
It urged the public to "stay away from sea fronts and beaches as conditions represent a significant risk to life". A further 76 flood warnings were in place across the country.
The Met Office has also issued "be prepared" amber warnings for strong winds sweeping across southern England and Wales. About 39,000 homes had power restored to them overnight, with 5,000 homes still without electricity.
A spokesman for Western Power Distribution said about 200 engineers had been working through the night to repair damage caused by debris being blown into overhead lines by strong winds in the south-west. "Over the last 12 hours or so, 44,000 customers in the south-west have been off supply at some point but we've managed to restore it to all but 5,000 homes," he said."It's an extremely exceptional event....
A wall cloud at Danby Beacon in in 2005, shot by colin grice, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
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