Linda Duffin reports on the wintry weather buffetting much of the UK

Meanwhile, thousands of homes in Scotland are facing a third night without electricity after power lines were brought down on Boxing Day.

BBC weather forecaster Peter Cockroft said gales would return to Northern Ireland and the west coast of Scotland overnight and added: "It's time to batten down the hatches."

Peter Cockroft gives a weather warning and forecast

Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the west coast of England will be worst hit although maximum gusts are estimated at 70mph, compared to 110mph in some places on Boxing Day.

More snow is also expected in central and south Scotland.

Homes blacked out

ScottishPower had hoped to reconnect around 20,000 customers by midnight on Monday but its team of engineers has been hampered by poor weather.

The spire of St Stephen's Church in Glasgow was blown down

A spokesman said: "We've still got about 12,000 to 13,000 customers off supply but we hope to get that down to less than 5,000. The outstanding customers will be reconnected tomorrow."

The worst affected areas are rural south Ayrshire, south Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

Alasdair Morgan, MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, said many of his constituents had problems getting through to ScottishPower's 24-hour emergency helpline.

Engineers conducting repairs have been hampered by the weather

ScottishPower said it had been "inundated" with 500,000 calls in a 24-hour period and offered minimum compensation of £50 to those without power for at least 24 hours.

Scottish Power's managing director of power systems, Alan Richardson, told BBC Radio Scotland: "We were on standby but what we weren't ready for was the east-to-west, north-to-south extent of the damage."

He said they had around 700 trees on power lines and added: "What we've got to do is find it, make it safe and cut the tree and put the wires up again, so each one is a big job."

The clear-up operation in Wales has already begun

Scottish Hydro-Electric said around 1,000 of their customers were without power.

A spokesman said they were hoping to have all residents in the Mull of Kintyre, Arran, Bute and Dunoon areas reconnected by midnight on Saturday.

Two stretches of railway line remain out of service.

ScotRail said buses would replace trains on the Gourock-Paisley Gilmour Street and Largs-Ardrossan South Beach branches.

High winds and floods have led to separate tragedies across the country.

Drowned in swollen river

River search: Rescuers search the Ashburn

The body of a man who fell into a river during Boxing Day storms has been recovered by rescue teams.

Paul Witt, 44, was last seen at the bottom of his garden at Ashburton, Devon.

His body was found in the flood-swollen river Ashburn half a mile south of the town.

In Northern Ireland a 24-year-old was killed in Comber, near Belfast when the car he was driving crashed into a tree which was blocking the road.