Storm Austen Cuts Power to Thousands as Storm Boelo Brings 80mph Gust Warning

Storm Austen, the first named storm of the 2026/27 season, swept across southern Britain, Ireland and northern France on Friday 23 October, bringing gusts of up to 84mph to Jersey and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes. Before the clean-up is finished, the Met Office has issued an amber wind warning for Storm Boelo, which is forecast to bring gusts of up to 80mph to Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the far north of England from Saturday night.

The back-to-back storms matter because they hit different parts of the UK and Ireland within about 48 hours. Households and travellers in the north who escaped the worst of Austen now face their own amber warning, while the south-west is still restoring power and clearing fallen trees.

Key facts at a glance

• Strongest UK gust: 76mph at St Mary's Airport on the Isles of Scilly, according to the Met Office. Jersey recorded 84mph, the BBC reported.
• Power cuts: more than 15,000 UK homes were still without power on Friday evening. National Grid said it had restored supply to more than 60,000 properties since the storm began.
• France hit hardest: distributor Enedis counted 288,600 households without electricity at midday on Friday, and a 62-year-old man died in the Manche department.
• Storm Boelo: amber wind warning from 9pm Saturday to 9pm Sunday, with widespread gusts of 60-70mph and up to 80mph on exposed coasts.
• Ireland: Met Éireann has orange warnings for rain in Kerry and for wind in Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo on Saturday.

How Storm Austen built up

Austen formed quickly over the Atlantic as it interacted with a strong jet stream, the fast band of high-altitude wind that steers weather systems towards Europe. The Met Office said the storm intensified most rapidly to the south-west of the British Isles and reached maturity near the UK. That created a tight pressure gradient, which is what drives damaging winds.

An amber warning covered Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and west Devon on Friday morning, inside a wider yellow warning for southern Britain. The name itself has an Irish link. RTÉ reported that Met Éireann submitted "Austen" in honour of Austen H Nagle, the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service.

What Austen did across the UK and Channel Islands

The worst of the wind landed overnight and on Friday morning across the south-west, Wales and the south coast. The Met Office recorded 75mph at the Isle of Portland in Dorset and at Needles Old Battery on the Isle of Wight, 74mph at Aberporth in west Wales and 71mph at Culdrose in Cornwall.

The Channel Islands took the strongest blows. All schools on Jersey and Guernsey closed for the day, and Paul Aked, head of Jersey Met, told the BBC that Guernsey saw gusts of up to 76mph, equivalent to a severe gale. The Guardian reported that Guernsey airport did not expect normal service before Saturday morning because most of its fleet was stranded on the UK mainland.

Supply problems may linger on the islands. Mark Cox, who runs the Co-op there, warned of fresh food shortages in the coming days because of missing ferry services. "It's rare we get this level of disruption to storms backing up so quickly," he told the BBC.

On the mainland, The Guardian reported that more than 16,000 homes in the south-west were without power just before 11am. Dozens of Cornish schools opened late or not at all, and families were evacuated from a holiday park in Perranporth on Thursday. National Rail reported severe disruption, with cancellations across England, Wales and Scotland and many routes running at reduced speed.

Brighton's West Pier loses another section

The most widely shared images came from Brighton, where a section of the West Pier collapsed into the sea as large waves hit it. The pier opened in 1866 and closed to the public in 1975. Storms and fires have destroyed much of what remained, and English Heritage has previously declared the structure beyond repair.

Storm Boelo: who is in the firing line this weekend

Boelo is a separate deep low moving in from the Atlantic, and it will take a more northerly track than Austen. The Met Office amber warning runs from 9pm Saturday to 9pm Sunday and covers much of mainland Scotland, the far north of England, including Cumbria and Northumberland, and the north coast of Northern Ireland.

Met Office Deputy Chief Forecaster Mark Sidaway said gusts "could reach up to 80mph in places", with gusts of 50-60mph more widely and spells of heavy rain. The forecaster warned of danger to life from flying debris and a "good chance" of power cuts that could affect mobile phone coverage.

Transport operators are already acting. In Scotland, rail services south and west of Kilwinning and on the Oban and Mallaig lines will shut early on Saturday evening. The line between Kyle of Lochalsh and Achnashellach will be out of service on Sunday.

Sources: Met Office, Met Éireann, RTÉ, The Guardian.

Ireland prepares for a second hit

Austen left around 3,000 Irish homes, farms and businesses without electricity on Friday morning, RTÉ reported, with 25-40mm of rain in parts of the south. Met Éireann senior forecaster Gerry Murphy said Boelo would be "a different storm" because it tracks further north, with Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Clare at risk of very heavy rain.

Ferry travel is already affected. Stena Line cancelled three of its four Dublin to Holyhead sailings on Saturday, leaving only the 4.30am departure.

France and the Netherlands count the cost

France saw the largest power cuts of any country Austen hit. Enedis, France's main electricity distributor, said 288,600 households were without power at midday on Friday, and 242,000 were still cut off at 6pm, including 82,100 in Normandy and 65,800 in Brittany. Ouest-France reported a gust of 161km/h, about 100mph, at the Pointe du Raz in Finistère.

The storm also turned deadly. The Manche prefecture said a 62-year-old man suffered a cardiac arrest while cutting up a weakened tree, franceinfo reported. Rail traffic was interrupted on lines in Normandy, and Paris airports reported delays and cancellations.

In the Netherlands, KLM cancelled 20 flights on Friday and planned 22 more cancellations on Saturday because of strong winds, NL Times reported. Schiphol said disruption was otherwise limited.

A different perspective: disruptive, but not record-breaking

Not every measure points to an exceptional storm. The Met Office stressed that Austen's gusts "remain well below the highest October gusts recorded in the UK". The October record is 124mph at Rhoose in the Vale of Glamorgan on 28 October 1989, and Needles Old Battery holds England's all-time record of 122mph from Storm Eunice in February 2022.

The forecaster added that such comparisons "do not reduce the potential impacts", because even moderate gusts cause damage on exposed coasts, rail lines and power networks. Schiphol's experience points the same way: one of Europe's busiest hubs, which normally handles more than 1,000 flights a day, reported little disruption beyond KLM's cancellations.

Politics also entered the picture. The storm coincided with new government advice for households to keep three days' worth of bottled water and tinned food for emergencies. Asked by reporters whether the government was playing catch-up on preparedness, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: "No. We are having the conversation with people about being better prepared."

What it means for you

• If you live in Scotland, Northern Ireland or northern England: secure bins, trampolines and garden furniture before Saturday evening, and charge phones and power banks. The Met Office warns that power cuts could also knock out mobile coverage.
• If you are travelling: expect early closures on some Scottish rail lines, reduced speeds elsewhere and cancelled Irish Sea ferries. Check with your airline or operator before leaving home.
• If you are driving: RAC's Jack Halstead advised slowing down, leaving a much bigger gap and avoiding coastal and exposed upland routes where possible.
• If you are in the south-west or Channel Islands: some power restorations and ferry services are still catching up, and shops on the islands may run short of fresh food for a few days.
• For visitors from the US, Canada or Australia: UK and Irish weather warnings are colour-coded. The amber warnings for Boelo flag danger to life, likely power cuts and travel disruption, so build slack into any weekend plans.

What happens next

Boelo's rain reaches western Ireland and the UK on Saturday morning, and the strongest winds arrive in the north on Saturday night. The UK amber warning expires at 9pm on Sunday, and Ireland's orange wind warning ends at 9am on Sunday.

Southern England and Wales should turn drier but stay windy on Sunday. The Met Office expects unsettled weather to continue into next week, especially in the north, as another low approaches. Forecasts suggest higher pressure and calmer conditions towards the end of the week.

In France, Enedis has not given a date for full restoration. In the UK, the open question is whether Boelo adds new outages in the north before engineers finish clearing Austen's damage in the south.

The bottom line

Storm Austen showed how quickly a fast-developing Atlantic low can disrupt power, schools, ferries and flights across four countries in a single day. Storm Boelo now shifts the risk north, with an amber warning covering most of Scotland.

Three practical steps for this weekend:

1. Check the official warning for your exact area on the Met Office or Met Éireann website on Saturday morning, because warnings can be upgraded.
2. Prepare for a power cut by charging phones in advance, which Ireland's fire and emergency management chief Keith Leonard called "your lifeline in an emergency", and never touch fallen power lines.
3. Rebook or delay non-essential travel across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Sea until Monday, and stay well back from sea fronts and cliff edges.