Travel disrupted as Storm Isha hits West Midlands
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Listen to your BBC local radio station: BBC Radio WM; BBC Coventry & Warwickshire; BBC Hereford & Worcester; BBC Radio Shropshire; BBC Radio Stoke
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Vanessa Pearce and Josh Sandiford
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Fire service ready to respond amid Storm Isha
While most of you will, hopefully, be safe indoors, emergency services are still out and ready to help anyone in need.
Jim Rottenbury, station manager for Kings Norton and Northfield, said the fire service was prepared for anything the evening could bring.
"This evening, for example, we have all of our resources available across the whole region, that includes all 38 fire stations and our three specialised technical rescue stations who can provide an advanced level of technical rescue in weather conditions such as this if we do see buildings in dangerous conditions, or fallen trees or floods or such like," he told BBC Radio WM.
Mr Rottenbury's advice for the evening is only to travel if absolutely necessary, plan journeys and to ring 999 if you are in any danger.
Second spell of bad weather in a month
Storm Isha comes just a few weeks after the West Midlands was hit by flooding.
Storm Henk hit at New Year, bringing with it high river levels on the Severn and Wye.
Flood barriers in Shrewsbury and Ironbridge only came down two weeks ago, but the region is being battered by more rain which is due to last for a couple more days yet.
Warning of standing water after M5 crash
There's been a serious crash which has closed the southbound M5 in Worcestershire, West Mercia Police say.
Its officers are among emergency services dealing with the collision close to junction 4A at Catshill Interchange.
The force has advised drivers to expect delays and watch out for large patches of water.
Pictured: Huge tree blocks road near Rugby
Abigail Wilson has shared this image of a large tree which has come down near Rugby.
She was driving towards the A5 from Clifton-upon-Dunsmore when she discovered it blocking Lilbourne Road.
A reminder - emergency services across the West Midlands are advising people to drive only if absolutely necessary as the winds build.
More bus disruption due to fallen trees
More National Express services in Birmingham are being disrupted, this time in Longbridge.
The X47 is diverted due to a fallen tree and will now call at Turves Green Road, Clunbury Road and Fairfax Road as it makes its way into the city centre.
Storm Isha 'most powerful on the planet'
Earlier we brought you the views of former Environment Agency worker and climate expert Dave Throup, who said what made Storm Isha unusual was the how widespread the weather alerts were - covering basically the whole of the UK.
He's now saying it is the most powerful storm on the planet at the moment.
Tree blocks line between Wolverhampton and Crewe
People are being advised only to travel if absolutely necessary as Storm Isha hits the region, and we've just had the first reports of a tree blocking the line between Wolverhampton and Crewe.
No services are running through there at the moment.
Chiltern Railways has said it is also limiting the speed of all services between Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill to London to 50mph due to high winds.
This will lead to delays of about 25 minutes.
Services are subject to being cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of Sunday.
Mark Pemberton sent in a picture earlier of the rain starting to fall at Coventry Railway station.
Storm set to 'ramp up' from 21:00
It is already quite wet and windy but there's still worse to come.
That's according to meterologist Vicky Royce Pagett, who told Radio WM that the winds being brought by Storm Isha will "ramp up" in the West Midlands around now - 21:00 GMT.
Vicky, from Bridgnorth in Shropshire, set up the Midlands Storm Chasers Facebook group 13 years ago.
"We haven't seen the worst of the winds just yet," she said.
"Starting, sort of, easing from around one o'clock in the morning as we get to the other side of midnight and calming down an awful lot by five o'clock in the morning.
"But we have still got some bumpy times ahead of us this evening."
'Multiple hazards' on Ross-on-Wye road
We've heard a little bit more about what's happening on the A40 in Ross-on-Wye.
West Mercia Police has confirmed there have been several crashes that are all due to weather and a number of falling trees.
It said drivers should avoid completely the road northbound between Symonds Yat and Ross-on-Wye as there are "multiple hazards".
Hundreds without power on Herefordshire border
About 400 homes are without power in Dymock, near Ledbury, according to National Grid.
The outage was first reported just after 19:00 and National Grid says it aims to restore power to homes by 23:00.
About 100 further homes are also experiencing a power cut near Ross-on-Wye in a separate incident.
National Grid says poor weather has a significant impact on its services however it has engineers out working around the clock to restore power.
People are urged to make sure their devices are charged and they have torches and batteries available in the event of an outage.
Birmingham to Dublin flights cancelled
Flights between Birmingham and Dublin have been cancelled until further notice.
Crowds have been gathering at Dublin Airport as more than 100 flights are cancelled due to the poor weather conditions.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, the airport said more than 30 flights had also been diverted to other airports.
Anyone due to fly has been urged to contact their airline for more information.
Bus services diverted by fallen tree
Bus services are also being affected by fallen trees in Birmingham.
National Express said its X5 service is diverted and will not be stopping at Gibbons Road in Sutton Coldfield.
It has apologised for any disruption.
Tree down near golf course
Lots of trees are being reported as coming down across the region.
West Mercia Police says one has fallen near Market Drayton Golf Course in Shropshire.
It has fallen near the brow of a hill, so officers are asking drivers to take extra care.
Gusts reach 50mph in Stoke-on-Trent
Latest figures from The Met Office reveal gusts have reached speeds of 50mph in Stoke-on-Trent.
In Birmingham, the winds have reached a high speed of 48mph.
Storm Isha is moving west and parts of Wales and Northern Ireland are experiencing gusts of up to 66mph.
A reminder that an amber weather warning is in place for high winds across the region, meaning there is a good chance of power cuts, damage to buildings and disruption to travel.
A storm brewing: Your pictures
The clouds were gathering earlier ahead of Storm Isha, which is making itself known across the region.
Thanks to our BBC Weather Watchers for sending in these photos from Brockhampton, Church Stretton, Leek and Martley.
To see more, or share your own, visit the BBC Weather Watchers webpage - however please follow advice to stay indoors where possible.
Multiple collisions due to tree blown down - police
There are warnings of severe disruption after multiple collisions on a road in Herefordshire due to a tree blown down.
The A40 south west of Ross-on-Wye is closed northbound causing a major tailback of traffic.
West Mercia Police has asked drivers to find an alternative route.
Warning of possible power cuts
Households have been warned that Storm Isha could lead to power cuts across the region.
According to the National Grid, there are currently outages in the Shropshire Hills that engineers are working to restore.
About 700 or so properties are without power in the north west.
The National Grid says it will work as quickly as possible to restore power to homes however advice is available here to help you prepare for an outage.
'Challenging night ahead' says rail boss
We've already heard of impacts on travel amid Storm Isha - but more is likely to come.
Paul Owen, operations director at Network Rail said he was expecting it to be a "very challenging night".
Trains between Birmingham and London Euston have stopped, and there are only limited services on other routes.
"We are running trains still, however that is at a reduced speed," he said.
"Scotland have had to take the choice already to close the routes proactively for safety reasons.
"We are starting to see the affects of the storm on services but the priority is people's safety and, where we can, to keep trains moving as well."
He said teams will be assessing any issues on Monday morning to try and make sure train services are in place safely - which may also cause some disruption first thing.
If you do have to travel, National Rail has a page providing updates on train services around the country.
Breadth of warnings 'unusual'
The number of warnings in place is what is making this storm "unusual", says an expert.
Former Environment Agency worker Dave Throup was speaking from his home in Worcestershire to the BBC News Channel earlier.
Mr Throup said he can't recall such widespread warnings in his 20-year career.
"That what makes Isha I think a particularly unusual beast in that the windfields normally can be narrowed down to a relatively small area but in this case you've got virtually the whole of the UK covered by these quite significant amber weather warnings," Mr Throup said.
Storm Isha's 'teeth are starting to show'
The storm is currently off the west coast of Scotland but Isha's "teeth are starting to show" according to Jim Dale, a senior meteorological consultant for British Weather Services.
"At the moment, the general play in the Midlands is that southerly winds are gusting around 40mph," Mr Dale told BBC Radio WM.
"These are gusts remember so they’re not the sustained wind but it’s the gusts that tend to do the damage – tiles falling off roofs, the odd tree here and there, bins thrown around and of course with it is the rain and the rain’s quite heavy," he said.
Parts of the region are still recovering from flooding after Storm Henk and Mr Dale is hopeful the rain from Isha won't cause nearly as much disruption.
"We’re expecting around 20mm [of rainfall] by the time we get to the morning," he said, adding that will vary from place to place.
"It’s a yellow warning for rain rather than an amber so I’m hopeful it won’t be doing too much flood damage."