Saturday, 10 January 2026
Saturday, 10 January 2026
Strong winds battered France and Britain on Friday as Storm Goretti swept through northern Europe, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of households, disrupting transport and forcing school closures amid plunging winter temperatures.
In France, around 380,000 households lost electricity, the Enedis power provider said, with the vast majority of outages reported in the northern Normandy region and in Brittany.
Overnight, wind gusts of more than 150 kilometres per hour were recorded in France’s northwestern Manche region, with authorities registering peaks of 216 and 213 kilometres per hour.
A record gust of 213 kilometres per hour was measured in the coastal town of Barfleur.
The violent squalls felled trees across several regions. In Seine-Maritime, at least one tree crashed onto residential buildings, though authorities said no injuries were reported.
Schools remained shut in northern France, where weather alerts were issued in 30 regions.
The SNCF rail operator suspended train services between Paris and the Normandy region, while local authorities urged residents to stay indoors.
“Take shelter and do not use your vehicle,” the Manche prefecture warned on X on Thursday, calling on residents to prepare emergency lighting and a drinking water supply.
Britain was also hit hard by Storm Goretti, with tens of thousands of homes losing power as the system brought more snow after a week of freezing weather.
The National Grid said 57,000 homes were without electricity, while the BBC reported outages affecting around 65,000 households.
Hundreds of schools were expected to close across Scotland and parts of central England, which has been particularly badly affected by the storm.
Rail operators in central England warned customers not to travel, with some services suspended.
The UK’s National Rail said train services would be affected over the next two days and urged people to avoid travel unless necessary.
Britain’s Met Office issued weather warnings across the country, including a rare, highest-level red wind alert for the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in southwestern England.
Gusts of up to 160 kilometres per hour were expected in parts of Britain, and “very large waves will bring dangerous conditions to coastal areas,” the Met Office said.
An amber snow warning was also issued for Wales, central England and parts of northern England, with forecasts of up to 30 centimetres of snow in some areas.
Across Europe, forecasters from Britain to Germany urged people to stay inside as the storm system continued to move east.
Europe’s current extreme weather conditions have caused at least eight deaths. On Thursday, police in the Albanian city of Durres recovered a man’s body from floodwater following days of heavy snow and torrential rain across the Balkans.
In Germany, heavy snow and strong winds in the north were expected to affect schools, hospitals and transport links.
Up to 15 centimetres of snow could fall in northern regions, while icy conditions were forecast in the south, according to the German Weather Service.
Temperatures this weekend could plunge to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in certain areas, DWD meteorologist Andreas Walter told AFP.
Some areas announced school closures on Friday, including the northern cities of Hamburg and Bremen.
In Hamburg, the weather had already caused delays and cancellations on the public transport network on Thursday.
The national rail company Deutsche Bahn warned of significant delays in the coming days and said it had mobilised more than 14,000 employees to clear snow from tracks and platforms.
The German Weather Service said the storm was expected to last until Saturday, with snowfall stopping on Monday.
Walter described the system as an exception compared with the milder winters of recent years, which he said were a “consequence of climate change”.
“It’s still possible to have a cold month with snow, even as temperatures rise due to climate change, but such events will become rarer in the future,” he said.
