Snow storms pummel Europe

Fierce winds battered France and Britain yesterday as storms barrelled through northern Europe, snarling train travel, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes in plunging winter temperatures.

Forecasters from Britain to Germany urged people to stay inside as they issued weather warnings, including the rare, highest-level red wind alert for the British Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in southwestern England.

In France, Storm Goretti cut power to some 380,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said, while Britain’s National Grid said 42,000 homes lost electricity in southwest England and thousands more elsewhere.

Overnight, gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour (134 miles per hour) were registered in France’s northwestern Manche region, authorities said. 

The winds felled trees in several regions, with at least one crashing on residential buildings in France’s Seine-Maritime region, without injuries, authorities said.

Gusts of up to 160 kph lashed England and Wales with the Met Office forecasting agency warning “very large waves will bring dangerous conditions to coastal areas”.

It also issued an amber snow warning in Wales.