At least two motorists were killed, tens of thousands of people were left without power and hundreds of trains were canceled on Monday after the latest in a wave of winter storms hit the UK and the Ireland with heavy rain and wind gusts of almost 160 kilometers / hour.
Britain’s weather service, the Met Office, issued an unusual general alert for the whole country ahead of the storm Ishawhich reached its peak last night.
In Northern Ireland, the storm uprooted beech trees made famous by the series Game Of Thronesand trees blocked trains along roads and railways across the country.
An 84-year-old man was killed when the car he was in hit a fallen tree in Scotland overnight from Sunday to Monday. A truck driver in his sixties lost his life in similar circumstances in Northern Ireland.
The Tay Road Bridge, a 2.2 kilometer span spanning the River Tay estuary in Scotland, recorded a gust of 172 kilometers per hour. A gust of almost 160 kilometers per hour was measured at the Brizlee Wood radar station in northeast England.
Ireland and the United Kingdom have been hit by a series of storms since the autumn that caused power outages and flooding along river valleys. Isha is the ninth named storm since September and a tenth, named Jocelyn by Irish forecaster Met Eireann, is expected to bring more winds and rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Scottish rail operator halted train service on Sunday evening and for much of Monday morning. Network Rail, which owns the rail infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales, has limited speeds on most lines to prevent locomotives from hitting debris, disrupting commutes from Monday.
Several main roads in Scotland and northern England were closed due to high winds, fallen trees or overturned trucks. Commissioner Davy Beck of the Police Service of Northern Ireland warned that many roads in the area remained impassable on Monday morning.
In County Antrim, Northern Ireland, three trees were uprooted at Dark Hedges, a road lined with majestic beech trees with intertwined branches that became a popular tourist destination after being featured as Kingsroad in Game Of Thrones.
The trees are believed to be approximately 250 years old and nearing the end of their normal lifespan. Several others were uprooted by other storms.
In Huddersfield, near Leeds in the north of England, an alpaca shed has been blown onto the road, the city council warned on X (formerly Twitter).
Planes heading to several airports were diverted, including a flight from the Canary Islands to Dublin that ended up in Bordeaux, France.
Around 230,000 homes and businesses were without power in Ireland, and 40,000 in neighboring Northern Ireland.
The Met Office said the storm is expected to “gradually move away” during the day on Monday, but the wind will persist.