Storm Eowyn live: New snow and wind warnings issued after 100mph gusts hit UK

The first Lumo train from Newcastle to Edinburgh since Thursday left platform 5 at the Tyneside station on time at 8.41am on Saturday. Passengers settled in for what was scheduled to be an 85-minute sprint to the Scottish capital. But after a brief stop at Morpeth to pick up more Scotland-bound travellers, the train then had to wait 1h40m for the line to be cleared on the approach to Alnmouth station.

Further problems ensued on the rest of the English part of the journey, with the train 4h10m late as it passed Berwick. Another long wait ensued as Network Rail engineers cleared debris at Reston station. The train eventually arrived exactly five hours behind schedule at 3.06pm.

A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “We’re sorry for the disruption to passengers travelling between Newcastle and Edinburgh today. This was due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Chathill and Alnmouth. Trains are now able to run in both directions, but with disruption expected until the end of the day passengers are advised to check with their train operating company before they travel.”

All passengers are entitled to a full refund of their fare. The average speed of their journey was 14mph.

Storm Eowyn became a bomb cyclone, which happens when a storm’s pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours and strengthens rapidly.

The storm was so powerful that meteorologists say a sting jet developed, meaning Eowyn tapped into exceptionally strong winds higher up in the atmosphere.

A sting jet is a narrow area of winds moving 100 mph or faster that is drawn down to the Earth’s surface from the mid-troposphere and lasts for a few hours.

Met Office meteorologist Ellie Glaisyer has the latest forecast.

“Storm Eowyn brought disruption for many of us through Friday,” Ms Glaisyer said. “It is gradually moving away towards Scandinavia as we head through the rest of the weekend, but then it’s all eyes out to the west as we see this weather front arriving through Saturday evening.”

Jeremy Clarkson has claimed that warnings about Storm Eowyn, which has unleashed 100 mph winds on the UK and Ireland and left one man dead, is part of an “anti-Tory” narrative.

Clarkson, in his column for The Sun, has scoffed at the warnings issued by experts, instead calling the conditions a “bit breezy”.

“The weathermen were all standing on the bottom corner of Ireland, making out like they were in Hiroshima in 1945 and there were stories that commercial ­airliners were coming across the Atlantic at speeds in excess of 800 mph,” wrote the 64-year-old.

“Look, I know why the weathermen like to get hysterical,” claimed Clarkson. “It means they are elevated from a slot at the end of a news bulletin into the bulletin itself and this makes their mums and dads very proud.”

“And I know why BBC television producers like the histrionics as well. It plays into the anti-Tory, anti-growth, anti-business global-warming narrative.”

Greg Evans reports:

Network Rail Scotland has shared details of the debris found by helicopters on tracks in western Scotland.

Marilyn Higham, 61, from Dechmonth in West Lothian, Scotland, said Storm Eowyn has brought the worst damage she has ever seen to the area.

“My husband tied the bus shelter opposite our house to a lamp post during the storm to stop it blowing onto the street,” the retired mental health nurse told the PA news agency.

“Our property is totally undamaged. We had a power cut, which started about 6pm last evening, and came back on during the early hours.”

Mrs Higham said thankfully no one in the village was injured as people heeded the warning and stayed indoors.

Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “The winds have still been strong nonetheless overnight, so it’s definitely not the calm after the storm today.

“It’s certainly a calmer day, but there is still going to be strong winds around, particularly across Scotland today, but for most of the UK, it’s certainly a much brighter and less windy picture, at least for most of Saturday.

“Thousands of homes (are) still without power this morning, thousands of trees came down onto power cables, and a lot of disruption to transport will continue, probably through the next few days, and I think that there’s still going to be some fairly difficult conditions for recovery operations.”

It is not just Celtic’s Premiership match against Dundee that has been postponed on Saturday as a result of storm damage.

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