UK weather: Storm Atiyah brings high winds and power cuts

Blustery weather prompts two yellow alerts and warning of disruption to election voting

The wet and windy weather that buffeted the UK on Sunday and Monday is expected to continue, with two yellow alerts in place from 5am on Tuesday stretching from the Midlands to the Scottish islands.

Gusts of up to 100mph were predicted to cause disruption through to Thursday, potentially affecting voting in the general election.

Storm Atiyah swept in from Ireland on Sunday, bringing gales that caused disruption to power and transport networks across the south-west and Wales and led to yellow weather alerts being issued overnight, with winds of 70mph measured in Culdrose in Cornwall at about 9pm.

Power companies registered 26 faults in the south-west on Sunday and two in Wales, which led to 5,500 customers being cut off.

There were lane closures on the M48 Severn Bridge on Sunday, and coastal communities were warned tidal surges could throw debris over sea defences.

“The strong winds are pretty widespread,” said the Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill. “It’s very windy in the west and south-west so that’s where we’re going to see the greatest impact unfortunately.”

The Met Office said delays were likely to continue on road, rail, air and ferry transport, and that short-term loss of power was possible in some areas on Monday.

In Ireland, there were warnings of coastal flooding, and Christmas events across the country were cancelled due to high winds. Thousands of residents were temporarily without power on the west coast in County Galway and West Limerick.

A silver lining of the blustery conditions was that a renewable power record was set on Sunday evening, when windfarms generated more than 16GW of power – five times the output expected from the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, according to the National Grid.

On Sunday the wind supplied 43.7% of British electricity against 20.5% for nuclear.