UK weather: Britain is bracing for 60mph winds and torrential rain this week

Britain faces 60mph winds and heavy rain this week as summer ends with an autumnal feel as forecasters warned of further travel chaos and power cuts and temperatures dropped below freezing.

The Met Office issued a wind warning from 9am tomorrow until noon on Wednesday for most of England and Wales, with the strongest gusts on coasts and hills as unsettled weather continues to arrive from the Atlantic.

The spell of strong winds will develop across the South West of England and Wales tomorrow morning, before spreading east across other parts of England and Wales overnight, clearing into the North Sea on Wednesday.

The gloomy forecast is bad news for families enjoying a staycation in Britain in the last weeks of the summer holidays, following the cancellation of thousands of foreign trips due to coronavirus travel restrictions. It comes as temperatures fell below zero overnight, with -0.4C (31.3F) at Loch Glascarnoch in the Scottish Highlands.

It comes after a child died in Bobbing, Kent, on Friday after being struck by a tree that was toppled by strong winds while another was airlifted to a London hospital with serious injuries as Storm Ellen battered the country.

With today looking grey and overcast, Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said: ‘This sort of weather pattern is more common in the autumn time, but as we saw from the storms last week we can get it at this time of year as well.

‘On Tuesday and Wednesday we may see gusts reach up to 60mph along the coast. This is likely to be accompanied by heavy rain which may well cause some transport delays.

‘It’s likely to slowly dry up on Wednesday – but this will only be a brief respite before another area of low pressure comes in for Thursday and Friday. It won’t be quite as windy but it will be wet.’

Next week’s bank holiday is forecast to bring more settled weather, but – in a blow to any thoughts of a fiery end to the barbecue summer – Mr Snell said: ‘There’s unlikely to be any heat building.’

A spokesman said one child was declared dead at the scene and the other was airlifted to a London hospital with serious injuries. Shocked locals suggested it was likely to be a ‘freak accident’. 

There were transport issues yesterday when a landslide closed the railway line between Glasgow and Edinburgh at Shotts in Lanarkshire. Passengers were encouraged to use alternative services to and from Glasgow Queen Street.

Meanwhile in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a 47-year-old man died yesterday when a chimney on his next door neighbour’s house collapsed and fell through his bedroom roof.

A woman aged 28, who was asleep next to him, had a remarkable escape and was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.

The chimney pot, bricks and slates from the roof of the two-storey cottage next door collapsed suddenly at 5am yesterday and smashed through the bungalow roof next door causing devastating damage.

Recent windy weather may have weakened the chimney structure and locals said it had been wet and windy again on Saturday night. The debris fell straight into the master bedroom.

The dead man is believed to have been killed instantly and pronounced dead at the scene Emergency services rushed to the scene to find a chaotic scene with piles of rubble and major damage to the two adjoining properties.

Homes had been left without power and roads closed as Storm Ellen – the first named storm during the summer holidays – hit Britain last week.

Four people died, including a man and two children aged 14 and six when their car skidded off the road and plunged into a lake in torrential rain in County Donegal.

In Kent, police said they were called to Parsonage Lane, a narrow rural road that runs through wheat fields, to reports children had been injured shortly after midday on Friday.