Overview
- The Met Office red wind alert covered Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly from 4pm to 11pm, with a new 99mph site record at St Mary’s Airport.
- National Grid reported more than 50,000 properties without electricity in the South West late on Thursday, with further outages in the West Midlands and Wales.
- The Cabinet Office sent two emergency phone alerts to roughly half a million people in the warning area with life‑safety guidance.
- Network Rail suspended all trains in Cornwall from 6pm and services elsewhere face disruption into Friday, as Birmingham Airport paused runway operations due to snow.
- Amber snow warnings forecast 10–30cm in parts of Wales and the Midlands, while the wider system drove flooding and evacuations in the Balkans with at least one death in Albania.