Storm Isha: Two dead as Met Office warns new storm approaching UK

With the UK reeling from the destruction left in the 107mph winds of Storm Isha, there are already warnings of a new storm coming in, with the Met Office in Ireland naming it Storm Jocelyn.

As the winds ease and the clean-up continues following Storm Isha, which has left at least three motorists dead across the UK and Ireland, Storm Jocelyn will bring strong 70mph winds and rain to much of Britain.

It’ll come as the Met Office warns of a strong jet stream pushing a large-scale, low-pressure system from the Atlantic across northern Scotland. bringing wet and windy weather for Tuesday night and into Wednesday for much of the northern half of the country.

Read the story in full on the Independent

ScotRail services across Scotland will be suspended from 7pm on Tuesday as Storm Jocelyn hits the UK.

There will be no rush hour services the following morning, the railway operator has said. It will come as a great source of frustration to commuters, as all of the operator's services were suspended on Sunday and Monday due to Storm Isha.

ScotRail customer operations director Phil Campbell said: “The heavy wind and ongoing rain hitting most parts of the country mean that it will not be safe for our customers and our staff, and all ScotRail train services will be suspended from 7pm tomorrow.

“This is the second withdrawal of train services this week, and we know the impact this has on customers, but the safety of staff and passengers will always be our priority.”

Two people died in separate road crashes overnight in the Republic of Ireland as Storm Isha hit the country, gardai have said.

A woman in her 20s, who was the passenger in a van, died in a collision with a tree in Carnalogue, Co Louth, shortly before 2am, Irish News reports. She was declared dead at the scene.

Separately, a man in his 40s died after the car he was driving crashed on the N17 at Lisduff in Claremorris, Co Mayo. No other vehicles were involved in the collision.

This is the moment a British Airways plane was forced to abandon its landing at Heathrow Airport as Storm Isha neared the UK on Sunday.

Gareth Dean, who was on board the aircraft, tweeted the footage, which had been recorded by Big Jet TV.

He said: "Due to the wonders of the YouTube & specifically @BigJetTVLIVE, we were able to see what happened when our plane did a “go around” after aborting the landing.

"All very undramatic onboard, well done to the pilot!"

Flooding has caused the closure of a main city centre car park in York.

At 2pm today coach and car drivers were hurrying back to their cars as rising river levels have forced the closure of St George’s Fields Car Park.

The car park between the Rivers Ouse and Foss, has been closed today as the rain from Storm Isha swells the two rivers.

Read the story in full here on the York Press

Thousands of homes are without power after the UK was hit by Storm Isha, causing widespread travel disruption and damage to people's property.

The whole country was battered by high winds and heavy rain from Sunday evening into Monday morning, with gusts reaching more than 100mph.

Images from the aftermath of the storm showed trees on top of cars, fallen debris and large queues at train stations and airports.

Glasgow has been battered by Storm Isha over the past 24 hours with buildings damaged and travel halted across the city.

Photos have now emerged online of the damage the storm caused to Ibrox Stadium with signage ripped off the ground as well as the surrounding areas.

Billboards that were once standing outside of Rangers' home have been snapped lying on the ground due to the sheer force of the wind in Glasgow.

Read the story in full here on the Rangers Review

Police have confirmed a man in his 60s died in a crash involving two vans and a fallen tree in Limavady, Co Londonderry, on Sunday night.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the man who died was the driver of a Vauxhall Vivaro van, which crashed at around 9.45pm.

The male driver of the other van involved, a Citroen Berlingo, has been taken to hospital for treatment. Officers are appealing for witnesses to the collision or anyone who spotted the vehicles on the Broad Road prior to the crash to get in touch.

A second person has died after a tree fell on their car during Storm Isha, the BBC reports.

It is understood the man was driving down Broad Road, in Limavady, Northern Ireland, at around 9.45pm on Sunday night when he was hit.

This is the second death reported as a result of Storm Isha. An 84-year-old man in Grangemouth, Scotland, was also killed after the car he was travelling in crashed into a toppled tree.

Around 70,500 homes are still without power after Storm Isha caused damage to power cables across the UK.

The Energy Networks Association said that as of lunchtime today, 323,000 customers who lost power due to storm damage overnight had been reconnected.

It said 46,500 customers were without power in Great Britain, compared to 24,000 customers in Northern Ireland.

Around 5,000 field staff and technicians are working to fix damage and reconnect power, in addition to thousands of customer service and support staff, the association added.

It said helicopters and drones are being used to assess the damage more quickly.

Storm Jocelyn, which arrives on Tuesday, will be the tenth named storm in five months.

It is the second time in a UK storm season that the letter J has been reached in the alphabet. The first time the letter J was reached was in March 2016, with Storm Jake.

The furthest a storm season has reached in the alphabet is the letter K, when Storm Katie was named, also in March 2016. Last year’s storm season, which ran from September 2022 to August 2023, made it only as far as the letter B, with Storm Betty in August.

By contrast, this year’s season has seen storms named in every month so far: Agnes in September 2023. Babet in October. Ciaran and Debi in November. Elin, Fergus and Gerrit in December and Henk, Isha and Jocelyn in January 2024.

The Met Office began naming storms in 2015.

A homeless campaigner sleeping rough shared the reality of being homeless during a storm, as Storm Isha brings 100mph gusts and heavy flooding to the UK.

Richard Roncero, director of homeless charity Steps to Hope, is currently travelling the UK and sleeping rough in various cities.

He gave an update on Sunday, 21 January, after spending a night in Inverness, Scotland, which Storm Isha is wreaking havoc in.

Read the full story on The Independent

Another yellow weather warning has been issued for England and Wales as Storm Jocelyn is set to bring high-speed winds this week.

The latest Met Office warning, running from Tuesday midday to Wednesday 3pm, covers all of South Wales, stretches northeast across Birmingham and stops at Newcastle.

Most of the country, except for the South of England, are covered by some form of weather warning around this time. The northern coast of Scotland has been issued with a more serious amber "danger to life" warning from 6pm Tuesday to 8am Wednesday.

You can check for updates on the Met Office website.

Storm Isha has caused significant disruption to railway networks across the country after hitting the country with high-speed winds.

It brought debris flying onto railway tracks, including sections of people's sheds, and even an entire greenhouse.

The picture below was shared by Steve White, managing director of Southeastern Railway, who said his area was hit with winds of 70mph.

He said Storm Isha deposited "at least 15 trees, one greenhouse and the obligatory trampoline on our network".

The flight from Copenhagen to Dublin should take just under two hours on average... but Storm Isha had other ideas.

Air traffic data shown by Flightradar24 shows a Ryanair flight bound for the Irish capital was forced to divert to Manchester amid high winds.

After four hours on the ground, the plane tried to reach Dublin again but ended up diverting to Liverpool three hours later, having failed to reach its intended destination.

There were a number of surprising diversions during the storm, including a Manchester to Dublin flight which ended up in Paris, but this one might be the most outlandish yet.

An 84-year-old man died during Storm Isha after the car he was a passenger in crashed into a fallen tree, Police Scotland have said.

The car was travelling on the A905 Beancross Road in Grangemouth, Fife, when it struck a fallen tree at around 11.45pm.

Police said the pensioner was the front seat passenger and was declared dead at the scene. The other occupants of the Hyundai were not injured.

Investigators are keen to speak to anyone who saw what happened on the A905 around 11.45pm on Sunday and have asked for dashcam footage.

A row of trees in Northern Ireland made famous by Game of Thrones have been damaged and felled by Storm Isha.

Work is ongoing to clear the site at the Dark Hedges in Co Antrim. The tunnel of trees became famous when it was featured in the HBO fantasy series and now attracts significant numbers of tourists from around the world.

Mervyn Storey, chairman of the Dark Hedges Preservation Trust, said: “It looks like there are three trees down. We have had people out since dawn trying to clear the road. There are a number of other trees down in the area as well.

“This is another blow to the Dark Hedges. In fact, one of the trees that was healthy has been blown down. It is very sad.”

Pilots faced some challenging conditions as they touched down at Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

Big Jet TV, a YouTube channel for aviation enthusiasts around the world, livestreamed landings at the airport as Storm Isha neared the UK – compelte with detailed and enthusiastic commentary.

Hundreds of passengers at Cologne Bonn Airport were forced to sleep on the floor as a four Scotland-bound flights were diverted during the storm.

Among the disrupted journeys was a Ryanair flight from Tenerife to Edinburgh, which was forced to change course to the German city.

STV News political correspondent Ewan Petrie said passengers at Cologne were "angry", having resorted to sleeping on the floor having been "promised hotel rooms".

Storm Isha hit Scotland on Sunday creating an entertaining scene for passengers at Edinburgh Airport Footage from the airport shows the solitary suitcase being blown across the apron by heavy winds, as passengers watch on and laugh.

Read the full story on The Independent

Travel disruption is continuing after amber and red warnings at the height of Storm Isha, with all ScotRail trains suspended until after the morning rush-hour.

Many ferry services have been cancelled and roads are closed after the storm swept the UK, with a gust of 107mph recorded on the Tay Bridge and one of 84mph at Salsburgh, North Lanarkshire.

Police have urged motorists to exercise caution when travelling as conditions may be hazardous.

Read the latest travel updates from the PA news agency here

The Met Office said the highest recorded speed was 99mph at Brizlee Wood, near Alnwick in Northumberland.

Police urged people to avoid travel unless “absolutely necessary” due to high winds and disruption.

A rare red “danger to life” warning of wind was in force in northern Scotland until 5am on Monday, while an amber warning of wind for the whole country was lifted at 6am.

The weather caused multiple flight disruptions, too.

Ryanair flights to Dublin from Manchester and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands diverted to the French cities of Paris and Bordeaux respectively. A Tui flight travelling from Sharm el Sheikh to Glasgow Airport declared an emergency due to Storm Isha.

A spokesman for Glasgow Airport said the flight was “diverted to Manchester due to current weather conditions”.

National Air Traffic Services said temporary air traffic restrictions were in place: "Restrictions of this sort are only ever applied to maintain safety. Our teams are working closely with airports and airlines to minimise disruption. Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline.”

Storm Isha forced several flights en route to Glasgow Airport to be diverted on Sunday.

Among those flights was Kirsty Findlay’s trip from Amsterdam, which aborted landing in Glasgow and rerouted to Manchester.

Footage the passenger posted on X shows the plane descending toward the landing strip before gaining elevation again.

(Credit: Kirsty Findlay via Storyful)

Here is just some of the disruption caused by Storm Isha from around the UK:

Emergency services were called to Welch Way in Witney after a building partially collapsed. The area has been cordoned off to prevent injury from any further collapse and for structural investigations to take place. No one was injured in the incident.

Read more on the Oxford Mail

In Scotland, fallen trees affected transport, with Traffic Scotland reporting stretches of the M9 and M74 were among roads closed throughout the night, while the A1 southbound was closed at Thorntonloch due to an overturned lorry.

High winds forced the closure of the Tay Road Bridge, M48 Severn Bridge and the A66 in Durham and Cumbria between the A1(M) and the M6, while the Humber Bridge, A19 Tees Flyover and A628 Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire were among stretches closed to high-sided vehicles.

ScotRail services have been suspended since 7pm on Sunday and are not expected to resume until around noon on Monday as dozens of lines are closed due to fallen trees and flooding.

Read more on the Glasgow Times

A huge tree came down on Gristhrope Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham and phone lines in the area were down as the storm lashed through the central belt of the UK.

High routes have been closed while fallen trees are causing chaos on local and rural roads. The A66 is shut in both directions between Scotch Corner and the M6 in Cumbria after “several lorries” overturned. The route was initially closed to high-sided vehicles before a full closure was brought in at about 10pm last night.

Read more from the Northern Echo

Heavy downpours battered some places, with nearly flood warnings in place in England and dozens in Scotland.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the weather was putting “significant pressure” on the 999 system and urged people to report non-emergencies online or by calling 101.

As of 8am, there were 29 flood warnings and 97 flood alerts in England

There are 4 flood warnings and 32 flood alerts in Wales.

There are 17 flood warnings and 50 flood alerts in Scotland.

This was the latest update from the Met Office this morning, warning of "some disruption" this morning.