Storm Lilian causes chaos with rain and high winds

Storm Lilian swept across large parts of the UK yesterday causing power cuts, cancelled flights, train delays and disruption at music festivals.

- ALEX CROFT

The wet and windy conditions have been caused by a deep area of low pressure that formed on Thursday night and subsequently battered parts of the country.

Fast winds in the high atmosphere also brought the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto – which struck parts of the Caribbean and the USA – to British shores.

Trees collapsed, market stalls were destroyed and scaffolding ripped apart as wind speeds reached more than 75mph in some areas of northern England, southern Scotland and Wales.

British Airways cancelled 14 flights which were scheduled to take off from Heathrow yesterday morning, and delayed others.

A spokesperson for BA said: “Due to restrictions imposed by air traffic control as a result of adverse weather across the UK, we’ve made some minor adjustments to our schedule.” Flights to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Italy, the US and Switzerland were cancelled.

LNER, Transpennine Express, Northern Rail, Avanti West Coast and many other train lines all reported delays as a result of weather disruption.

Hundreds of homes across northern England were also left without power yesterday morning, with electricity companies trying to reconnect homes.