Two die as Storm Isha causes havoc across UK

1. Two people in the UK have died after their cars hit trees brought down by Storm Isha: a man in County Londonderry and another in Grangemouth
2. The strong winds and heavy rain have also caused travel disruption and left homes without electricity
3. Thousands of people are still without power on Monday in Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England, with conditions making it unsafe for some crews to work on power lines
4. Parts of the UK have seen their strongest winds in 10 to 20 years; gusts of up to 99mph (159km/h) were recorded in Northumberland
5. A new storm - Storm Jocelyn - is expected to hit parts of the UK and Ireland from tomorrow, with more warnings for rain and strong winds
6. Train services in Scotland have been suspended from Tuesday evening and during commuter hours on Wednesday morning in advance of Jocelyn's arrival
7. You can follow the latest updates where you are by tuning into BBC local radio and regional TV

That's the end of our live coverage

That's all from our live coverage of Storm Isha for today.

The page editors have been James FitzGerald, Adam Durbin, and Fiona Nimoni, and the writers have been Tarik Habte, Rachel Russell, Gianluca Avagnina, Ali Abbas Ahmadi, Jake Lapham, Tara Mewawalla, and Christy Cooney.

Thanks for joining us and keep up-to-date with all the weather news with our latest story here.

Storm Isha's disruption continues as Jocelyn heads to UK and Ireland

As we end our live weather coverage of Storm Isha, with a second named storm on the way tomorrow, here's a summary of the day's key events:

• After first hitting the UK yesterday, the force of Storm Isha led to major damage and significant disruption in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and northern England
• Two people - one in Northern Ireland and another in Scotland - died when their cars hit trees that had been brought down by the storm
• The storm brought extremely high winds - some of the strongest seen in two decades - and disrupted electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes (most of which have since had their power restored)
• Air, road and rail journeys have been disrupted throughout the day. Air travellers were hit especially hard, as dozens of flights were rerouted mid-journey or cancelled entirely
• A new storm - Storm Jocelyn - is expected to hit parts of the UK and Ireland from tomorrow, with more warnings for rain and strong winds
• This has prompted the suspension of train services in Scotland on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning to limit the risk to safety from the storm

Are we experiencing more storms in the UK?

Justin Rowlatt

Climate editor

Shutterstock

Isha is the ninth named storm since September last year, and a tenth - Storm Jocelyn - is on the way tomorrow. It's the highest number in a storm season since the Met Office began naming them in 2015.

Lots of storms. So the UK is getting stormier, right?

It isn’t quite that simple. Even in a stormy year like this, big storms are still fairly rare. What’s more, the number of storms has always varied between years and between decades.

That makes it hard to discern trends. Which is why the Met Office says there isn’t enough evidence to say for certain whether climate change means storms are becoming more frequent or not.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin says some computer models do predict an uptick in the number of winter storms in the longer term but even here the results aren’t clear.

A few climate models suggest otherwise, which means the Met Office can’t be certain what the trend will be and says it has only “medium confidence” in this.

The evidence on rainfall is much clearer. UK winters have been getting wetter - in line with the predictions from climate models of warmer, rainier winters.

There is also an increase in the frequency of intense rainfall and the computer models say this is likely to become more pronounced as our climate continues to warm.

For example, the Met Office predicts that big rainfall events - two centimetres of rain an hour or more - are likely to be four times more frequent by 2070.

Passenger describes 12-hour journey from Copenhagen to Liverpool

BBC

Cormac Kelly has described how a Ryanair flight of a few hours from Copenhagen to Dublin on Sunday turned into a 12-hour slog between numerous airports and eventually left him in Liverpool.

He told BBC News that the flight went to Manchester after winds stopped it landing in Dublin and was then held on the runway for around five hours.

It made an unsuccessful attempt to return to Dublin before being sent on to Belfast, but was still unable to land because of the strength of the wind.

“It was a disaster. It was very scary,” Kelly said.

“Everyone was looking at each other. The lights were off. No-one knew what was going to happen as we tried to land.”

The pilot was forced to abort the landing and the plane was sent back towards England, heading first for Newcastle and finally landing in Liverpool.

“Once we got off the plane and got into the airport, a lot of planes were redirected there. It was just carnage," he said.

"Everyone on the flight was asking each other, ‘What do we do next?’ Everyone had the same answer: ‘I don’t know’.”

He is now in a hotel and has been able to book himself a new flight home.

Volunteers battle storm to rescue injured walker on Cumbrian fell

LAMRT

A major operation was deployed to the fells in Cumbria to organise the rescue

Two people who got stranded on a fell in Cumbria have been confirmed safe following a search and rescue operation, after one of them suffered a leg injury and could not walk.

Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (LAMRT) says it received a report of the walkers on Hart Crag at about 15:00 GMT yesterday.

LAMRT says around 20 mountain rescue volunteers, two RAF teams and the coastguard had to battle "horrendous" conditions, "fighting the wind, rain and swollen streams", to rescue them.

Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association chairman Richard Warren tells BBC Radio Cumbria that a lot of equipment was carried up in anticipation of a serious leg injury.

But he says when volunteers reached the two people, one of them had a twisted ankle, which would have been "classed as walking wounded".

"People will be shocked. The message was very clear, the high fells really was a no-go area," he explains.

"I'd be really interested to know what motivated them to go up onto the high fells," Warren adds.

A number of flood warnings remain in place for Cumbria, and thousands of homes remain without power.

• You can read the full story here.

Climate professor calls for improved infrastructure resilience

As weather events like Storm Isha become more frequent, a climate expert says the government needs to enforce higher standards for power companies to help infrastructure become more resilient.

Jim Hall, a professor of climate and environmental risks at Oxford University, tells the BBC's World at One programme that the UK needs to be "planning and preparing" more for extreme weather.

"A warmer atmosphere is a stormier atmosphere," he explains.

Hall says the National Infrastructure Commission - a public body he is sits on - has been asking for "a clearer conversation and guidance" from the government.

He explains preparation is particularly needed around things like high wind speeds, which power lines must be able to resist, and severe flooding, which drainage systems should be designed to accommodate.

Although Hall believes high enough standards do exist in some areas, including the water sector, he wants to see this spread to power and transportation.

The government has not set clear standards across the board for what infrastructure operators should be preparing for and delivering.

And unless they do that then the infrastructure owners and operators can't work out how much this is going to cost and plan for the future."

Fallen tree damages newly-built extension

Ben Morris

Live reporter

Angela Grubb, from the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands, was woken overnight when a tree crashed into her house.

She said: “The tree fell on the roof, just above my bedroom, on our newly-built extension. I thought: ‘why didn’t it fall on the old part?’

“Our house is very exposed, so when a storm hits my family stays up all night with our fingers crossed.

“I had expected that my greenhouse would blow away, not that this huge old tree would come down.

"There is obviously damage to the roof but it's all fixable.”

Angela Grubb

Taxi driver stayed at home over concerns of being stranded

Tania Sangha

BBC Asian Network

Mohammad Vaqas Mahmood

Mohammad Vaqas Mahmood, a taxi driver in Glasgow, says Isha is the worst storm he’s seen in a “long, long time”.

"The winds last night were crazy," he tells BBC Asian Network. "There's debris and cones all over the motorways."

Mohammad hasn’t been out to work today as he didn’t want to face getting stranded somewhere with a customer.

“If there's a fallen tree we can be sat there for two hours waiting, or once I've dropped them off, I could be stranded some place if the weather's bad.

“Or if there’s fallen trees or landslides, which we do witness a lot in this line of work,” he adds.

BBC Verify

Watch: The crazy flight diversions caused by Storm Isha

The strong winds caused by Storm Isha brought difficult landing conditions at aiports across the UK and Ireland, with many flights cancelled, delayed or diverted.

Some passengers ended up hundreds of miles away and sometimes in different countries than intended.

Our colleagues at BBC Verify have put together this video of some of the most unconventional flight paths taken so far:

Storm Isha causes crazy flight diversions

Unusual to have two named storms in two days

Darren Bett

BBC weather presenter

We seem to have gone from one extreme to another.

The last two weeks were very cold with snow and ice, but now we have seen a dramatic change to wet and very windy weather.

Big changes at this time of year are not that unusual and are all down to a repositioning and strengthening of the Atlantic jet stream.

To have two named storms impacting the UK in two days is a little unusual. But back in February 2022 you may remember there were three storms in a week - Dudley, Eunice and Franklin - that brought damaging winds and flooding.

The end of this week is still looking windy, but at the moment the chance of yet another named storm then looks slim.

However, the weather is in a very turbulent and energetic phase - so keep an eye on the forecast.

Violent waves and fallen trees: More Weather Watchers snaps

With woodlands and sea walls in particular taking a battering over the last day, here's a selection of some striking storm images sent in by BBC Weather Watchers:

Combebloke / BBC Weather Watchers

Ilfracombe

Snoweyedeer / BBC Weather Watchers

Coventry

Nadezna / BBC Weather Watchers

Porthcawl

Dalgety47 / BBC Weather Watchers

Aberdour

Pete's portal / BBC Weather Watchers

Castlereagh

Storm Jocelyn tracking towards the UK

Just as we watch Isha fizzle out into the North Sea, attention is turning to Storm Jocelyn.

The second named storm in two days is predicted to bring more strong winds and heavy rain to parts of the UK and Ireland from tomorrow evening and into Wednesday morning.

Here's the approximate location of the storm in the North Atlantic just over 90 minutes ago:

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ScotRail services to shut down at 19:00 tomorrow

More travel woes for people in Scotland, as train services are set for more disruption as Storm Jocelyn hits tomorrow night

ScotRail says rail services across the country will be suspended from 19:00 GMT and there will be no rush hour services on Wednesday morning.

Tarmac TikToks go viral as Manchester to Dublin flight sent to Paris

As we've been reporting, Sunday was a very long night for some travellers who had flights diverted hundreds of miles away.

Declan Cassidy had a 13:30 GMT flight from Manchester to Dublin, but strong winds in the Irish capital forced it to divert to Paris. Cassidy fired up his TikTok account and began posting video updates.

A clip of Cassidy speaking during his five hours on the tarmac in Paris accumulated almost half a million views.

The videos proved useful - some people with family on board the plane lost contact with their loved ones when their phones died, but managed to stay in touch via Cassidy's TikTok account.

"Rough approach but huge thanks to the flight and cabin crew. Legends," he posted after landing back in Dublin at close to midnight.

UK holidaymakers caught up in travel nightmares

We're hearing about more travel nightmares caused by flight diversions last night.

Vanessa Spark-King's two and a half hour flight from Malaga to Gatwick turned into four hours when it was diverted to Paris.

She says after a long wait for their luggage, passengers were ushered onto coaches with "very little communication".

Thinking the plan was to catch a ferry from Calais across the English Channel, she got off the coach, reluctant to weather a storm at sea.

Unable to find a hotel in the middle of the night, she caught a train back to Paris to get the Eurostar to London early this morning.

“All in all very long, nightmarish journey," she says.

BBC

Vanessa Spark-King is now going to Gatwick by train to pick up her car

In pictures: Flooded roads and fallen trees

The impact of Storm Isha is being felt across the UK and Ireland, with many still experiencing the effects of flooding, wind damage and ongoing travel chaos.

With clear up operations underway, here's a selection of some of the most striking pictures we've seen so far:

BBC

Some high-sided vehicles have been overturned by the force of the wind, including this lorry in Doncaster

Reuters

Heavy rain in Swynnerton, Staffordshire has forced motorists to drive through flooded roads

PA Media

These trees in County Antrim - known as the Dark Hedges and made famous by the Game of Thrones TV series - were damaged by strong winds

Getty Images

Falling trees have caused serious damage to the graveyard at St Joseph's Church in Glenavy, also in County Antrim

Tolga Akmen/Shutterstock

Passengers at London's Kings Cross train station are among those experiencing delays as rail service disruption continues around the country

What's it like to fly a plane during a storm?

A commercial flight instructor has told BBC Radio 5Live that pilots working in stormy weather are trained to fly "in any conditions".

Sharlene Benn explains part of a pilot's training involves using flight simulators to simulate windy weather they may face while in the air.

"These aircraft are built to fly in these conditions, so the safety is there and we’re trained to fly in bumpy conditions", Benn says.

She also says the aircraft tend to have "great weather radar systems" to aid in planning to avoid storms, or in finding ways to fly around them.

Storm Isha's impact led to many emergency diversions yesterday, with some flights re-routing hundreds of miles or to other countries, as planes struggled to land as scheduled due to the high winds.

Flood warnings in place across UK

As a new storm - Storm Jocelyn - is expected to hit parts of the UK from tomorrow, flood alerts and warnings are currently in place around the country.

Nineteen flood warnings and 81 flood alerts have been issued in England, where the Environment Agency says local river flooding is possible across parts of the north.

There are nine flood alerts across Wales, with river levels above normal in the Monmouthshire and Newport area.

In Scotland, the Environment Protection Agency has issued 29 flood warnings and 17 flood alerts, including high river levels on the River Dee near Aberdeen. The Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland has included Belfast, Derry, Antrim and Newry in the Significant Flood Risk Areas (SFRA) at the moment.

Pilot 'hadn't considered' issues of diverting to Paris, passenger says

Jacqueline Howard

Live reporter

Kerry Hamilton

Kerry Hamilton was among those who spent the night at a Paris airport

Kerry Hamilton was returning home on an EasyJet flight from Edinburgh to Bristol after a weekend visiting her parents. Once it got off the ground, it was clear something was wrong.

"We got towards Bristol and were told the winds were too high for us to land safely, and we would try circling to see if they would reduce," Kerry told the BBC.

"They didn't, so we were told we were diverting to Paris because a lot of the UK airports were closed or not safe to land at."

Since a domestic route had now become international, many passengers who had left their passports at home were unable to pass through immigration to access a hotel.

Kerry told me the pilot informed passengers he "hadn't considered" the issue.

EasyJet apologised for the inconvenience, which it said was due to factors outside its control. It said it had been doing all it could to "minimise the impact for our customers" and was working to make those who had to remain in the airport "as comfortable as possible.

• Read more here

A high number of named storms this season

Darren Bett

BBC weather presenter

This storm season is turning into a very busy one. We reached the letter 'H' earlier than in any previous season. Since then, the UK has been hit by Storm Isha and now Storm Jocelyn is next up tomorrow.

This next storm is likely to pass a little further to the north of Scotland and won't be as intense, which is why amber wind warnings cover a smaller area.

The way things are going, this season could see the highest number of storms since the naming of storms started in 2015. Coincidentally, it was that year that brought a record 11 storms - up to the letter K.

There is still a great deal of seasonal variability which is why we can’t pin this all on climate change. Last season there were only two named storms and they were both in August.

Storm Jocelyn on the way for Tuesday