Storm Pia continues to disrupt UK
The north is bearing the brunt
Winds of more than 80mph battered northern parts of the UK as Storm Pia threatened to bring chaos to pre-Christmas travel plans and left thousands of households without electricity.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for wind, stretching north from Birmingham to the Shetland Islands and including Northern Ireland, remaining in place until 3pm on Thursday.
That had been brought forward from 9pm as the Met Office said the worst of the wind was expected to be in the morning, with conditions slowly easing.
The yellow warning means journeys could be disrupted, there was the potential for power cuts and coastal routes could be affected by waves or spray.
Gusts of 81mph were recorded at Brizlee Wood, near Alnwick, Northumberland, and at Baltasound on Shetland, with gusts of more than 70mph recorded elsewhere in the North East of England.
National Rail reported that routes across Scotland, and parts of England and Wales were affected, and speed restrictions were in place on lines within the weather warning area.
People on social media reported their sleep had been disturbed by Storm Pia, not officially named by the Met Office, but given named status by the Danish authorities where it was expected to have an even greater impact than in the UK.
Schools in Shetland were closed on Thursday and more electricity network engineers were being brought in to deal with possible power cuts.
Christmas markets in Sheffield and Liverpool were closed on Thursday morning due to the conditions.
The roof came off a section of a block of flats in Haslam Crescent, Sheffield, the city council said on X.
Oli Claydon, a Met Office spokesman, said while the winds will ease through the day, it will remain breezy.
As conditions improve in the UK, the storm will pass over into northern Europe, bringing strong winds to Denmark, northern Germany and Poland, he said.
Further weather warnings for snow and ice have been issued for Shetland and northern Scotland from Friday and into the weekend, with accumulations of 10-15cm on higher ground possible in the Highlands, before milder air brings rain on Saturday.
Scotland and northern England will also be hit by persistent rain and showers following Storm Pia.
Looking ahead to Christmas Day, there could be a "technical" White Christmas, with a "small chance" of snow falling on higher ground in Scotland.
But Mr Claydon said:
"This won't be picture postcard snowy scenes."
More widely, the picture for Christmas Day looked to be unsettled weather in the south of England, with showers in Northern Ireland and western Scotland, with northern England remaining dry.
Northern Powergrid said 40,000 households had suffered disruption to powers supplies in the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, with 28,000 reconnected so far.
The firm said West Yorkshire was the area worst hit by power outages.
Louise Lowes, director of customer services, said:
"We are mobilising our customer support vehicles immediately to ensure we have welfare arrangements in place and we are keeping local agency partners informed of the communities worst affected by Storm Pia.
"We encourage anyone who knows of neighbours or relatives who may be in a vulnerable position to call us on 105 so we can ensure they get the additional support they need."
"We thank our customers for their patience. We are doing all we can to provide updates about when we will be able to get their power safely back on."
Ms Lowes said:
"Our main priorities are to deal with emergency situations as quickly as possible, support our customers and ensure our people can work safely as soon as the conditions allow."