UK Weather: Clean-Up Begins After Storm Ali Batters Parts Of Britain

Yellow warnings for parts of England and Wales are still in force.
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The first named storm of the season wreaked havoc on parts of the UK on Wednesday, bringing winds of up to 100mph and claiming two lives.

A woman died after a caravan was blown off a cliff and a man was killed by a falling tree in Ireland, while thousands of homes were left without power and lorries overturned. 

In Scotland, clean-up efforts began overnight on Wednesday, with workers starting to declutter railway lines and in Northern Ireland engineers are working to restore energy supplies.

A yellow warning for parts of England and Wales is in force from 6pm today.

The Met Office said gusts of up to 65mph were possible in some places, as strong winds were likely to develop cross parts of Wales and south west England during Thursday evening.

It also warned of a “chance of injuries and danger to life” as high winds threaten to cut power, damage buildings, blow off roof tiles, fell trees and trigger large waves on the coasts.

The woman in her 50s who died after a caravan was blown down a rocky incline and smashed to pieces on the beach below in County Galway was named locally as Swiss tourist Elvira Ferraii.

She was reported to have been staying at the remote beauty spot in Clifden ecoBeach Camping and Caravan Park for a number of weeks.

A worker in a forest park in County Armagh died after he being hit by a tree.

The man, aged in his 20s, was working on behalf of public utility Northern Ireland Water in Slieve Gullion Forest Park. 

One person was injured after being blown over by the windy blast outside the new V&A Dundee museum, which was later forced to close due to the adverse weather conditions, and a woman in Cheshire was taken to hospital by air ambulance after a tree fell onto her car. 

Around 500 cruise passengers and crew were reportedly stranded in Greenock after severe weather broke their ship’s mooring lines on Wednesday, while tugs were called in to assist the Nautica.

The most powerful gust of wind, at 102mph, was recorded on the Tay Road Bridge between Dundee and Fife at 3pm.