Storm Isha: Trees falling and homes without power in the South West

Firefighters dealing with a fallen tree. Credit: Taunton Fire Station

Storm Isha has hit the region, leading to fallen trees, travel disruption, and homes without power.

Strong winds have caused damage to power lines near Falmouth, with around 1,000 properties affected overnight, according to the National Grid.

Many of these homes have now been reconnected.

Pictures from Taunton Fire Station show firefighters dealing with a fallen tree.

Waves crash at Ilfracombe Harbour this morning. Credit: Shane Gooch

A social media post said: "STORM ISHA hits Taunton.

"Trees are starting to fall including this one just outside of Miles Tea Room on the High Street.

"On Call firefighters made the area safe."

The weather has also led to restrictions on the M48 Severn Bridge and a yellow warning for wind is in place until 12pm on Monday 22 January.

The entire country was subject to wind warnings issued by the Met Office as gusts topped 90mph in places.

The UK has been blanketed by ‘unusual’ danger-to-life wind warnings. Credit: PA

Train disruption

  • Great Western Railway has had to cancel services between Exeter and Barnstaple due to a bridge being damaged at Crediton.

Network Rail imposed 50mph speed restrictions across most routes to keep passengers and trains safe from falling trees and debris blown onto tracks.

The company said: “It’s likely that travel disruption will continue into Monday morning as engineers finish the clean-up operation removing fallen trees and debris and running ‘ghost trains’ to ensure lines are clear before allowing passenger trains to restart.”

The A36 Warminster Road was closed in both directions due to a fallen tree from Down Lane, Bathampton to B3108 Lower Stoke, Monkton Combe. It has since reopened.

Five dead as Storm Isha brings winds of 107mph

How the storm formed

Some very cold air across the northeast coast of America has developed a very strong jetstream coming out of the northeast coast of America.

The jet is approximately 180-200 mph and Storm Isha travels very quickly eastwards across the Atlantic on Saturday.

Storm Isha is the ninth named storm to hit the UK since the season began in September.

Each storm is named when it poses a risk to people and they are given names beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet.

The record number of named storms in one year is when the Met Office began the practice in 2015/16, with Storm Katie being the 11th and final storm of the season.

If there are three more named storms between next week and August, this year will mark a new record.

The forecast ahead

The Met Office said Storm Isha is expected to pull away through the day, although it is expected to remain windy with a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers.

Showers are expected to be heaviest and most frequent on Monday 22 January, but easing with a dry night forecast.

A bright start to Tuesday 23 January will see cloud and rain moving in from the west and winds increasing.

Find out more about the weather for the week ahead here.