More heavy weather in store as Storm Eleanor hits Europe
Storm Eleanor caused havoc across northern Europe, leaving several people dead and infrastructure damaged. Forecasters said more inclement weather was on the way.
The winter storm reached Europe on Wednesday, bringing flooding and winds of up to 100kph.
Heavy winds and rain battered France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands after hitting the United Kingdom and Ireland. At least three people were killed across Europe, and there was widespread disruption to travel and damage to property.
The storm left about 200,000 households in France without electricity, according to Associated Press, and flight delays were reported at airports in Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich.
In the Cornwall town of Portreath, a 12-metre section of the harbour wall collapsed as the storm passed through. In Ireland, 150,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, according to Ireland’s electricity supply board.
A skier was killed by a falling tree in the town of Morillon, in the French Alps, while two people drowned off Spain’s Basque coast after being washed out to sea by a wave.
The highest winds were on Pilatus Peak near the Swiss city of Lucerne, where gusts of 196kph were recorded, a Swiss broadcaster reported.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, a train was blown off its tracks, injuring several people, and about 14,000 homes were left without power.
Video footage showed a British Airways plane being forced to abandon a landing at London City airport because of strong winds caused by the storm.
A number of ferries across the Irish Sea and English Channel were cancelled.
The storm has passed much of northern Europe, and Eleanor’s eye is now moving across the North Sea, but the UK Met office said that more severe weather was still to come, with a cold snap expected to arrive at the weekend, pushing temperatures in Northern Europe to as low as minus 10°C.
Eleanor is the Met Office’s fifth named storm of the 20172018 season. It followed Dylan, which made landfall in the UK on New Year’s Eve.
The last major storm to hit northern Europe was Hurricane Ophelia in October last year.
Neil Davies, flood duty manager for the UK Environment Agency, urged people to take care “on coastal paths and promenades” and warned against people putting themselves at risk: “Don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger trying to take ‘storm selfies’.”