Storm Gerrit batters Britain as Met Office warns of floods, power cuts and disruption to post-Christmas travel

27 December 2023, 08:40 | Updated: 27 December 2023, 11:24

Storm Gerrit has rolled in to Britain as the Met Office raised the alarm over 70mph wins and issued a spate of rain and flood warnings.

Swathes of the UK will see dire conditions in the wake of festive celebrations, with rail passengers facing having journeys delayed by speed restrictions.

Drivers will have to contend with "strong winds and heavy rain", the Met Office said, adding that "wintry hazards" will be especially apparent in northern Scotland.

And snow has been forecast for parts.

Besides disruption to transport, the Met Office has warned of the risk of power cuts and flooding.

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Its chief meteorologist Frank Saunders said: "Storm Gerrit will run towards western UK on Wednesday and bring with it potential impacts for much of the UK.

"Winds across southern coastal areas of England will be strong, possibly peaking around 70 mph on exposed coastlines, but more widely around 50-60 mph within the warning area.

"Rain is an additional hazard from Storm Gerrit, with active weather fronts leading to a wet day for many.

"Snow is also likely to cause problems for some northern areas: only briefly for a few upland routes across the Pennines and southern Scotland overnight and early on Wednesday, but more widely to the north of the Central Lowlands later in the day.

"Here around 10 to possibly 20cm of snow may affect some of the highest routes, this combining with very strong winds to lead to some difficult travel conditions. At lower levels a combination of heavy rain and very strong winds will dominate."

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A yellow warning for wind, bringing the possibility of transport disruption, is in place for the south coast and south western coast of England until 6pm.

Most of Wales has been issued a heavy rain warning, bringing the possibility of flooding with it, until 6pm, while much of the Welsh western and northern coast, and the coast of North West England, has been issued a wind warning from 6pm until 3am on Thursday.

A heavy rain warning is in place until 6pm for heavy rain across much of the north and parts of the Midlands between Stoke and Nottingham, and a separate one for the same timeframe has been issued for South West Scotland.

In the Highlands, a rain and snow alert has been issued, lasting until 9pm, while in the western parts of Scotland's high north, a wind warning is in place for the rest of the day.

The Shetland Islands have been issued a wind and snow warning for 9pm to 6am.

And the entirety of Northern Ireland has been issued a rain and wind warning, though that was due to expire by 10am.

ScotRail has scrapped all trains between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh until January 3 due to Highland flooding, while speed restrictions were announced for nine routes, including Edinburgh or Aberdeen and Inverness, Edinburgh and Perth or Dundee, and Glasgow Queen Street, Oban or Mallaig.

In Wales, trains between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog were scrapped, while there are late start-up services from Shrewsbury to Swansea and Llandrindod. Floods between Hereford and Leominster have also caused delays.

The storm's disruption compounds other problems, including disruption to Southeastern services between London and Kent due to overrunning engineering works.

Gerrit is the seventh named storm of the season, starting with Agnes in September. The most recent was Fergus on December 10.