Snow, gusts… Storm Bert shakes the United Kingdom and Ireland, at least one person has died

This storm brought snow, rain and gusty winds to both countries. A falling tree has killed a man in the south of England.

Little affected by storm Caetano which hit France two days ago, the United Kingdom and Ireland have been facing an intense storm named Bert since Friday November 22. The episode caused strong winds, heavy snowfall and the risk of flooding, disrupting transport and depriving tens of thousands of homes of electricity.

Around 7 a.m. (Paris time), a sixty-year-old died in the Hampshire region, in the south of England, after a branch fell on his car. In north Wales, five adults and five children were rescued in the afternoon after a landslide, reports Sky News.

Floods, snow…

Around 100 flood alerts are currently in force in England, Wales, as well as Scotland, which was covered in a white blanket on Saturday. By the afternoon, almost 4,000 homes were without power in central, south-west England and south Wales, with 27,000 people also affected in the north-east. England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, electricity network operators said.

A spokesperson for the British professional organization Energy Networks Association (ENA), Ross Easton, warned that the situation could further deteriorate, because the “worst” of this winter storm “is yet to come”.

In the west and north-west of Ireland, 60,000 homes, farms and businesses were also affected by power outages, the Irish public supplier ESB said early this morning.

“Multiple risk” event

Many roads, train and ferry lines have had to be closed, and flooding has already affected the west of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which were first affected on Friday evening. Traffic at Newcastle Airport in the north-east was severely disrupted by the snow, and planes had to be diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh.

Many trains were also canceled for the entire day, and the state highway agency warned of the danger of traveling on northeastern roads due to blizzard and snow. Several football matches were also canceled on Saturday.

Jason Kelly, a head of the British Met Office, described the storm as a “multiple hazard” event, with a mix of snow, rain and wind for most of the weekend. However, the Met Office lifted its orange alert for snow and ice in certain areas of Scotland earlier than expected, which was due to last until 5 p.m. GMT.

Ten to twenty centimeters of snow were expected in some areas, and 20 to 40 centimeters in others located at an altitude of more than 400 meters. In England, snowfall of up to 13cm fell in some areas, with strong winds recorded at more than 130km/h.

Much of the rest of the country will remain on yellow alert for the whole weekend, and the east and south of England are expected to be under heavy rain overnight and during the day on Sunday.