Storm Boelo batters UK and leaves thousands of homes without power - as Brits issued with 'danger to life' warnings

Thousands of homes are still without power as the UK was hit by a second storm in just over 24 hours. Storm Boelo has brought more strong winds and heavy rain to parts of the UK just a day after Storm Austen hit the country, with gusts expected to reach speeds of up to 80mph. Dozens of flights - around 2% of the scheduled total - have been cancelled, while rail passengers were urged not to travel as several companies cancelled services.

An amber wind warning, the Met Office’s second most severe, is active across Scotland, the north of England down to Carlisle from 9pm Saturday to the same time on Sunday , with another in place for the north east of Northern Ireland from 9pm Saturday to 10am Sunday. Read More: Part of Brighton's historic West Pier collapses as storms bring heavy disruption Read More: Halloween nightmare as UK faces pumpkin shortage after scorching summer Meanwhile, a large yellow warning for very wet and windy weather stretches across the whole of the UK’s north from midday Saturday to 9pm on Sunday.

Another warning for heavy rain covers Wales and parts of western and southern England from 11am to 11pm Saturday. “Very strong westerly winds associated with Storm Boelo are expected, with fairly widespread gusts of 60 to 70mph and gusts to 80mph in exposed coastal areas,” the Met Office said. “The strongest winds will initially affect western Scotland and the far north of Northern Ireland on Saturday evening and then spread eastwards overnight and through Sunday.”

The strongest gusts have been recorded in Scotland and Wales, with the greatest wind speeds recorded in South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, at 76 miles per hour (mph). That is followed by Inverbervie , north-east Scotland, where gusts reached 71 mph, and Aberdaron, north-west Wales, at 68 mph. There were scenes of severe flooding in Gourock in Inverclyde, west Scotland, on Sunday morning as an amber weather alert came into effect. Cars were left floating while a boat was washed onto the pavement as water gushed through the streets following a day of torrential rain.

Widespread travel disruption is expected to ferries and trains with TransPennine Express warning against all but essential train journeys on Saturday and Sunday, while Avanti West Coast strongly advised users not to travel north of Preston on Sunday. Ferries crossing the Irish Sea have also been cancelled and disrupted. Some 56 flights from UK airports have been cancelled, according to aviation data company Cirium. That makes up around 2% of the scheduled total of 2,619 flights that had been due to take off today.

Heathrow has been the worst affected airport, with 15 flights cancelled, followed by Manchester Airport which cancelled five. Storm Boelo follows Storm Austen which hit the South West on Friday. More than 3,700 homes in the region were without electricity on Saturday morning, according to the National Grid map. One X user complained they had spent 23 hours without power and faced a further 12, to which the National Grid responded: “Our engineers are working to get supplies restored as quickly as possible, but there are currently dozens of cuts across Cornwall, due to storm damage & each one requires extensive repairs (lines down, trees fallen onto lines, snapped poles etc..)”

This came after the electricity company on Friday night confirmed that engineers had restored power to more than 60,000 homes since the storm began. The Met Office said the power cuts could potentially be replicated across the amber areas in the north this weekend. Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: “There’s more stormy weather to come as we go through this weekend, especially across northern parts – that’s where we’re going to see the strongest winds.

“Storm Boelo is arriving. It’s going to bring widespread rain and some very strong winds indeed, and it’s quick on the tails of Storm Austen which is now clearing away towards the east.” He added: “All of us will see some fairly persistent rain particularly as we go through the afternoon. “In the west it’s going to be fairly heavy, some high totals which could lead to a bit of flooding in places, and nonetheless there will be some significant spray on the roads.

“It’s the winds that were perhaps most concerned about, they’re really going to whip up some strong gusty winds across Northern Ireland, northern parts of England and also Scotland through the day – strengthening as we head towards the evening.” Storm Boelo’s winds will peak from Saturday evening. London’s annual Diwali on the Square celebrations this Sunday were cancelled on independent health and safety experts’ recommendation in light of the storm.

Temperatures will be a little more than the seasonal average but “obviously with the wind and rain it’s going to feel pretty unpleasant out there”, Mr Burkill added. “A very, well, different side of autumn compared with what we’ve seen through much of the season so far.” The wet weather will clear overnight for many while more rain hits Scotland and Northern Ireland. Rainfall totals will build up in those areas and may reach more than 100mm in a day on higher ground in Scotland.

Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan previously said “we do need the rain desperately”, particularly in the south of the UK which faced the brunt of the “severe drought” this summer. Human-driven climate change disrupts rainfall patterns and drives more extreme weather events, which the UK also experienced this summer through successive record heatwaves. The Prime Minister warned on Friday that the UK could face “a winter of greater flooding” and said we are living in a world where “unexpected events” are “more and more common”.

Andy Burnham denied the suggestion that the Government is playing catch-up with civil preparedness as he attended a summit organised to learn from the summer’s record wildfires. He said: “We potentially are facing a winter of greater flooding, so it’s about recognising all of those risks and taking action.” At one stage on Friday in the South West, 31,000 homes were without power, planes had been cancelled and part of the historic West Pier in Brighton collapsed into the sea.

Scottish ministers have activated the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room (SGORR) to prepare for Storm Boelo. Social Justice and Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville chaired an SGORR meeting on Friday and said it will continue to “monitor the situation closely over the weekend and provide regular updates to the public”. The City of Edinburgh Council said it will be closing Princes Street Gardens, Lauriston Castle Grounds and Saughton Winter Gardens on Saturday evening because of the forecast and will reopen them on Monday once it is safe to do so.

Edinburgh Castle will also be closed on Sunday, and visitors have been warned that the site may be delayed or closed on Saturday because of the weather forecast. The Paisley Halloween Festival event on Saturday – one of Scotland’s best-known Halloween events, according to organisers – has also been cancelled thanks to the severe weather forecast. The free-to-attend event was planned to take over the Paisley town centre and host a parade of more than 400 professional performers and community groups, and it included street theatre and outdoor light installations.