What the Met Office warning said
The Met Office issued an Amber wind warning covering Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and Plymouth, in force from 3am to 10am this morning. Gusts of up to 80mph were forecast on exposed headlands, with 60-70mph more widely across the warning area, alongside heavy rain driven by strong northwesterly winds. The Met Office's own advice warned of longer journey times, a danger of injury from flying debris, and a good chance of structural damage and power cuts.
A separate, lower-level Yellow wind warning covered a wider area -- London, the South East, the rest of the South West, Wales and the West Midlands -- from midnight to 2pm. Both warnings have now expired, but the power cuts they set off are still working their way through the networks.
Power cuts now span much of England
What started as a Cornwall-and-Devon story has broadened considerably. As of 17:06, customers affected by operator:
- National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West, West Midlands, East Midlands): 16,839 affected -- still the hardest hit.
- Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (southern England, north Scotland): 10,401 affected.
- UK Power Networks (London, the East, the South East): 8,096 affected.
- Northern Powergrid (North East, Yorkshire): 2,923 affected.
- Electricity North West: 442 affected.
The areas with the most customers affected right now: Cornwall (TR, ~5,700), Guildford (GU, ~5,200), Taunton (TA, ~3,800), Bath (BA, ~1,800), Tonbridge (TN, ~1,400), Redhill (RH, ~1,400) and Oxford (OX, ~1,100). We can't say what's causing each individual fault -- a network's feed doesn't record a cause, just the outage itself. What we can show is where the power cuts are and how many people they affect.
Cornwall and Devon: where it started
The region under the Amber warning is still significantly affected, even as the wider picture has grown around it:
- Cornwall (TR postcode area): 30 active power cuts, affecting around 5,733 customers.
- Plymouth (PL postcode area): 13 active power cuts, affecting around 949 customers.
- Exeter (EX postcode area): 16 active power cuts, affecting around 811 customers.
You can check live status for Cornwall (TR), Plymouth (PL), Exeter (EX) and Torquay (TQ), or any other part of the country, on our postcode-area pages -- these figures update continuously as the storm moves through and networks respond. Restoration times given by operators range from later today through to "not yet confirmed" for the largest incidents -- those are each network's own estimate, not a guarantee.
What to do if you're affected
If your power is off and you haven't already reported it, call 105 free, any time, to be connected to your local network operator -- this works from any phone, on any network, even if you don't know who your electricity distributor is.