Hurricane Katia: 80mph winds as Britain takes a battering

Disruption to transport and power as large areas of Scotland, northern England, Wales and Ireland are hit by storm The tail-end of Hurricane Katia lashed parts of Britain and Ireland with gusts of wind more than 80mph on Monday, causing disruption to rail services and forcing the closure of a stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race . Several motorway bridges were restricted as gusts topped 80mph across Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, parts of Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Much of Scotland was drenched along with the gales, but elsewhere conditions were largely dry. The hurricane’s power is not yet spent and the Met Office is maintaining an amber alert across central and southern Scotland until Tuesday when winds are expected to ease. A much bigger area remains on yellow – be aware – status, extending north to the highlands and south to mid-Wales and central Lincolnshire. The conditions were so windy Britain’s energy network operator National Grid considered shutting a number of wind power farms overnight, as strong winds threatened to overload the system with electricity at times when demand is low. “If we’ve got constraints and too much generation we’ll go back in there,” said a spokesman. “Nothing is decided yet but if it stays this windy we may have to look at it.” The grid operator had to shut down 750 megawatts of wind power capacity on Saturday night and 300MW on Sunday night as the network became congested. As the second stage of the Tour of Britain was abandoned, riders were diverted to an exhibition lap around Kendal, Cumbria. They will reconvene on Tuesday morning for the third stage of the cycle race in Stoke-on-Trent. A spokesman for the event said: “We had to take the decision based on advice we had from the police and highways that it would be unsafe to run today’s stage. “The high points of the route and particularly Blackpool seafront were considered unsafe. But there are thousands of people here in Kendal and we wanted to give them something to see.” In County Durham strong winds blew off a bakery firm’s roof, which collapsed on to 15 cars. A row of five almost-finished industrial units in Langley Moor, Durham, came down “as if it had been subject to a controlled explosion”, said Sean Kelly, the operations manager at Bako Northern. He added: “It was extremely lucky for us. All our drivers were out and there were no contractors or visitors.” Coastal flooding alerts by the Environment Agency in Anglesey and between Bridlington and Barmston on the Yorkshire coast proved unnecessary, but around 13,000 homes in the Irish Republic were left without electricity after gales brought down power lines. In Scotland, extra staff were on standby to restore links in the most vulnerable areas. Ferries from both the Republic and Northern Ireland were cancelled and train and bus services disrupted across the island as gusts reached 80mph near the western coast. The Harry Blaney bridge across Mulroy Bay in Donegal was closed along with schools on Arranmore island, just off the coast, and flights to Dublin from Donegal were grounded. Scottish weather stations recorded gusts topping 70mph on the Cairngorms and the Nevis range, near Fort William, where skilifts and gondolas were closed as a precaution. ScotRail reported disruption to trains between Glasgow, Largs and Ardrossan while Caledonian MacBrayne ferries between Oban, Arran, Islay and Cumbrae stayed in port. The Met Office said winds would ease slowly throughout Tuesday, with rain continuing in western Scotland but conditions bright elsewhere. Billy Payne, forecaster for MeteoGroup, said there would be significant amounts of rainfall during the next few days, but heavy rain would be confined to the north and west of Scotland. “The brunt of the wind will go through central and southern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and North Wales,” he said. “Gusts are 60 to 70mph in some places, possibly higher, especially in exposed places in parts of western Scotland, like the islands and hilly areas. “It will be quite windy in the south too with gusts of 40-50mph. There will be quite a lot of rain, perhaps heavy outbreaks over the next couple of days. “The heavy rain will be mostly confined to the north and west of Scotland today and tomorrow. There is a risk of some flooding in north-west Scotland with the high rainfall totals.” Weather Scotland Ireland Wales Martin Wainwright Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk

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