An Emergency Cobra meeting has been held over Storm Eowyn following Met Office claims that it was the strongest weather bomb to hit the UK in 10 years as new yellow warnings are issued for heavy rain, wind and possible flooding.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, chaired a meeting with ministers to discuss the response to the storm, including work to reconnect homes without power.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and Scotland, the First Ministers of Northern Ireland and Scotland and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland also attended the meeting.
A government spokesperson said: ‘The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden chaired a Ministerial COBR meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland Office and Scotland Office, ministers from across government, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and the First Minister of Scotland.
‘Ministers discussed the ongoing response to Storm Eowyn, particularly the urgent work underway to reconnect homes which have lost power.
‘To support recovery, engineers have been dispatched to Northern Ireland and Scotland, and Ministers thanked all front-line workers for their efforts to keep communities safe.
‘We continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to provide further support, working closely with the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive.’
The Met Office has said Storm Eowyn is the strongest to hit the British Isles in at least 10 years as it issued more yellow warnings for floods and another three inches of rain.
People view large waves as Storm Eowyn makes landfall in Porthcawl, south Wales
A large fallen tree in Dromore, County Down, where a red weather warning was issued
A shopper struggles to hold an umbrella due to strong wind as Storm Eowyn hit in Edinburgh yesterday
A photograph taken on January 24, 2025 shows a roof torn off from the Chimney Corner Hotel, outside Belfast
A Nissan Micra car is demolished under a pile of bricks on Newcastle Road in Sunderland yesterday
Ice skating rink collapse during the storm Eowyn in Blanchardstown, suburb of Dublin
Yellow weather warnings cover most of the western part of the UK for Sunday
In some areas it was the worst for ‘more like 20 or 30 years’, the forecasters added, saying it was ‘pretty exceptional’, as reported by The Standard.
Amid a swathe of yellow warnings, the Met Office has warned of winds as high as 70mph, rain, snow and ice until Tuesday.
Sunday is set to bring more bad weather with yellow weather warnings covering much of the west of the UK and parts of Northern Ireland.
A yellow wind warning covering south-west England, English and Scottish coasts around the Irish Sea, Wales and Northern Ireland will be in place from 8am to 3pm, with 50 to 60mph gusts expected.
A yellow rain warning covering southern and central England and Wales will also be in place from 8am on Sunday to 6am on Monday.
A danger to life warning has also been imposed for fast flowing or deep floodwater while homes and businesses could face rising water.
Some areas could see as much as 80mm of rainfall over the weekend from two separate spells of heavy rain and thundery showers, while 10 to 20mm should fall quite widely and 30 to 50mm could fall over high ground.
The Met Office has predicted a possibility of power cuts throwing the country into darkness and difficult driving conditions.
A tree which fell into a house and garden on Cyprus Avenue in east Belfast yesterday
A car and a shed lie crushed and shattered underneath a tree topped during the storm in Dechmont in West Lothian
An ice skating rink collapsed during the storm Eowyn in Blanchardstown, suburb of Dublin
Workers at an ice skating facility in Blanchardstown which was damaged after strong winds tore the structure apart
Workers clear debris from the roof blown off of Helensburgh leisure centre in Scotland
Scotland was issued with a rare red weather warning yesterday, with workers today clearing the storm’s debris
Workers clear debris from the roof blown of a leisure centre during storm Eowyn
A delivery van crushed by a large fallen tree at the Radisson Blue Hotel, Sligo
Rubble from a partially collapsed wall of a building is seen as Storm Eowyn hits, in Denny, Scotland
Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said: ‘Looking at Sunday, it’s set to be a fairly fine start for a lot of areas – another ridge of high pressure building in to keep things fairly settled, with some sunny spells in there.
‘The cloud, though, is going to be building as we see a low pressure system move into the South West.
‘This will be bringing heavy rain in for south-west England and Wales from sort of mid-morning onwards, and then that will spread into Northern Ireland and northern England as we head later on into the afternoon.
‘Winds will also be picking up with this feature. Certainly, it’s not going to be as strong as Storm Eowyn.
‘However, because it’s coming in from the South West, it’s going to be actually more southern areas of England that are going to see the strongest wind gusts compared to what has mostly been further towards the north.’
Areas of Scotland and Ireland have already seen devastating damage, with buildings ripped apart, trees torn from their roots and tearing winds laying waste to their streets.
At midday on Saturday, around 60,000 households were still without electricity as power companies provided free food and hotel rooms to those affected.
Train services are not expected to recover until next week such was the destruction on the railways.
A satellite view of Storm Eowyn at 2.30pm yesterday afternoon as it sweeps over the UK and Ireland
Train services are not expected to recover until next week such was the destruction on the railways
A vehicle drives as waves crash over the seafront in Oban as Storm Eowyn hits Scotland yesterday
A bus shelter lies on its side and smashed up after the storm in Dechmont in West Lothian
Helensburgh swimming pool roof is ripped apart as Storm Eowyn hit Scotland yesterday
Firemen secure a house in Belfast that was damaged by the winds of Storm Eowyn yesterday
A fallen tree blocks a road during storm Eowyn that hit the country in Belfast
Damaged roof at the Chimney Corner Hotel seen in Mallusk, on January 24, 2025 near Belfas
A dog struggling in Storm Eowyn yesterday morning as it hit Blackpool in Lancashire
A fallen tree breaks up the pavement during storm Eowyn that hit the country in Belfast
Network Rail reported 400 individual incidents across the network. These included multiple trees on tracks, damaged overhead wires, power supply failures, plus other objects on the line.
ScotRail said they managed to reopen some lines, including Perth- Inverness, Inverness – Elgin, Inverness – Aberdeen, Dundee – Aberdeen, Perth – Dundee, Edinburgh – Tweedbank, Edinburgh – Dunbar, and Drem – Edinburgh.
ScotRail said that ‘significant disruption will continue for the rest of {Saturday) and into Sunday.
The storm continues to wreck havoc across the UK – as those witness to the destruction scramble to make repairs and plans continue to be cancelled.
Just hours before kick-off, Celtic cancelled their premiership match against Dundee over safety fears following damage to their home stadium Parkhead.
Last night, the 100mph weather bomb left one person dead and sparked travel chaos for commuters across the UK and Ireland. A man was killed after a tree fell on his car, in the north-west of the Republic, Gardai said
More than 1,100 flights were cancelled on Friday, with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow airports the worst affected.
A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire in Scotland on Friday, the Met Office said, while a record-breaking wind speed of 183kmh (114mph) was measured in Mace Head, Co Galway in Ireland, Met Eireann said.
A 96mph wind was measured at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, while it was 93mph at Aberdaron in Gwynedd, Wales, and 92mph at Killowen in County Down, Northern Ireland.
A fallen tree and pole on Grove Park Drive in Dublinyesterday as Storm Eowyn strikes Ireland
Workers starting to remove a fallen tree that crashed through the wall of Phoenix Park and onto Blackhorse Avenue in Dublin
Networks crew working to restore power in Avoca Avenue in Blackrock, co Dublin
Just hours before kick-off, Celtic cancelled their premiership match against Dundee over safety fears following damage to their home stadium Parkhead
A bus stop in Galway, Ireland,was destroyed yesterday due to Storm Eowyn
A man uses a chainsaw as he works on removing a tree which fell in Kilteel county Kildare, Ireland yesterday
Aeroplanes line up on approach to land in gusty conditions at Heathrow Airport in London
An aerial view of flooded fields at Axminster in Devon yesterday after the River Axe burst its banks
But it was so severe that it knocked some weather stations in western Ireland offline, meaning the full extent of powerful winds on Friday is not yet known.
Some 20 per cent of all flights scheduled to or from UK or Irish airports were cancelled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium which said a total of 1,070 had been cancelled – with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow worst affected.
Hundreds of passengers also spent hours on flights which returned to their points of departure after being unable to land at their planned destinations.
Ryanair flight RK596 from London Stansted to Edinburgh reached the Scottish capital’s airport but could not touch down safely.
After circling over the Borders, it returned to Stansted, landing two hours and 44 minutes after taking off. Online systems had initially showed the flight was diverting to Cologne, Germany.
Dramatic videos showed planes struggling to land and wheelie bins blown across streets in the strong winds.
Hundreds of schools closed in Scotland, Wales and northern England during the storm – while 715,000 homes, farms and businesses were without power across the Republic of Ireland, and a further 240,000 homes and business in Northern Ireland suffered cuts.
The Isle of Man’s Department of Infrastructure declared a major incident because of the number of fallen trees and their impact on arterial roads and emergency services.
The storm name Eowyn – pronounced ‘A-yo-win’ – is also found in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, where it is the name of a noblewoman from the kingdom of Rohan.
