Met Office keeps weather warnings in place after Storm Arwen affects roads and trains in Greater Manchester

The Met Office has described gusts overnight as “damaging” and having affected “a wide swathe of the United Kingdom”.

Although the extremely rare red weather warning expired in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, the Met Office said that amber and yellow warnings for wind remained in place, with the expectation of “some very strong gusts” in many areas.

Many roads were closed by fallen trees and debris in the worst-hit parts of Scotland, while the M62 was closed near Rochdale with more than 120 HGVs stuck in snow.

Train services were badly disrupted, with National Rail warning on Saturday morning that trains were unable to run between Wigan Wallgate and Southport /Kirkby, and between Bolton and Blackburn, due to debris on the line. Replacement buses were being put in place, with travellers advised to check the National Rail website before heading off.

Electricity North West said they were dealing with large numbers of reports of powercuts including in Bury< Rochdale and Oldham.

In Northern Ireland, one man sadly died yesterday (26 November) when his car was struck by a falling tree in County Antrim.

What were the effects of Storm Arwen elsewhere?

High winds, heavy rain and snowfall arriving from Friday afternoon, as the Met Office issued a rare red warning.

The Met Office said wind speeds hit 98mph at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, 87mph in Orlock Head, County Down, 78mph in Inverbervie on the north-east coast of Scotland and 77mph in Aberporth in Wales.People were still advised to only travel if absolutely necessary.

Northern Powergrid also said severe gales had caused power cuts for more than 55,000 customers, mainly in the Northumberland, County Durham and Tyne and Wear areas.

And in North Wales, ITV was forced to pre-record Friday night’s live episode of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! amid concerns, including that poor weather would interfere with the broadcast around Gwrych Castle.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said it had been dealing with a “large” number of incidents late on Friday “caused by the current weather conditions including many fallen trees and roofs being blown off structures”.

What is the outlook for the rest of the weekend?

The Met Office warned the north-east of England, north-west of England, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the East Midlands will experience cold weather until Monday.

Amber weather warnings remain in place until around 9am on Saturday for the north-east coasts of England and Scotland, and the south-west coasts of England and Wales.

The yellow warning covers most of the UK until 6pm.

A version of this article was originally published on our sister title, NationalWorld.