A powerful storm system, named "Goretti" by Météo-France, moved across the United Kingdom and France on Friday, leaving downed trees and power cuts affecting nearly half a million customers.
The storm also spread snow across parts of Great Britain.
The worst of the 55,000 U.K. power outages were in the southwest at Cornwall, where 73 percent of National Grid U.K. power customers were without power as of Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US.
A weather station at Padstow NCI in Cornwall recorded a wind gust of 123 mph (198 km/h). One man had his home's roof ripped off as hail and rain poured in through cracks in the walls. Off the southwest shore, a peak gust of 99 mph (159 km/h) was reported at St. Mary's on the Isles of Scilly, the highest there since 1991, the Met Office said.
To the southeast, a 121 mph (195 km/h) gust was measured at Barfleur, on the tip of France's Cotentin peninsula. Winds were even worse in Normandy, France, with a wind gust of 132 mph (212 km/h) recorded in Gatteville-le-Phare. At one point, more than 380,000 customers were without power in France.
The storm affected rail services in the English West Midlands, as well as trains in France and Germany.
Travel and school disruptions in Scotland from a storm earlier this week were extended by Friday's storm. The nation was hit with 20 inches (51 cm) of snow on Monday, and many schools shuttered again on Friday, wrapping up a full week of closures.
LATEST POSTS
- 1
Most loved Public Dish: Which One Addresses Its Nation Best? - 2Irish defence minister's trip to Lebanon cancelled
- 3Chinese astronauts’ return to Earth delayed over fears spaceship damaged by debris
- 4Vote in favor of Your #1 4\u00d74 SUVs
- 5The Magnificence of Extraordinariness: Presenting Valuable Adornments and Gemstones
- Two reportedly killed as Israel attacks Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
- My Excursion to a Better Way of life: Health Experiences
- What's the Fate of 5G Innovation?
- The powerful new Rubin Observatory just found 11,000 new asteroids and measured 'tens of thousands more'
- Chief of Staff Zamir warns IDF will collapse due to lack of manpower, raises 'ten red flags'
- Scientist turns people’s mental images into text using ‘mind-captioning’ technology
- FDA approves Wegovy pill for weight loss: What to know
- What were the little white pills found in Tiger Woods's pocket at the scene of his crash? What to know about hydrocodone.
- Bitcoin momentum builds in Abu Dhabi as global interest surges
