Stormy weather hits UK travellers

97% of power cuts in last year's storms were caused by fallen trees

Drivers are being warned to stay at home as the stormy weather battering Britain brought motorway traffic to a standstill in some areas.

Heavy winds lashed the north and west of the UK, with 84mph gusts recorded on the south Wales coast.

"Things are slowly grinding to a halt because of the combination of weather and Friday afternoon traffic," Scott Lawson of AA Roadwatch warned.

Motorists should not travel unless absolutely necessary, he added.

'Dire day' for south Wales

Welsh roads were among the worst-affected, with speed restriction of 30mph on some bridges.

The highest gust was recorded in the Mumbles on the south Wales coast.

Forecaster Neil Talboys described it as "dire day" here with heavy rain as well as strong winds.

Safety officials are still on the alert for possible flash flooding, although none has been recorded so far.

Meanwhile gusts of 70mph were recorded in Aberdaron, north-west Wales, during Thursday night.

Winds reached 50mph in Penzance, Cornwall, and 45mph in Plymouth, Devon.

Irish Sea ferry operator Stenaline said the adverse weather conditions had forced it to cancel services due to sail from the Welsh port of Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire in Southern Ireland on Friday.

Stay at home unless absolutely necessary Scott Lawson, AA

Early Stena Line services between Fishguard and Rosslare were cancelled, and high speed services between Stranraer and Belfast are to be replaced by conventional ferries.

Irish Ferries also announced cancellations on its Dublin Swift service to and from Holyhead.

Two ferries from Dublin each took an extra two hours to berth at Holyhead on Friday morning in gusty winds of around 60mph.

A spokesman for Holyhead Coastguard said the way the port was built meant ferries had to turn around and back up to the ramp.

"These are two of the biggest ferries in the world so in high wind that becomes a trickier operation and they take it very slowly," he said.

The weather has also forced the closure of Felixstowe Docks until further notice.

Conditions set to improve

The only places that had escaped were Scotland, the far North of England and Northern Ireland.

But driving conditions were set to improve as winds died down during the evening.

By Saturday morning places in the southern half of the country should be back to normal, forecasters said.

Storms last autumn caused power cuts to thousands of homes, forcing a government review into the chaos.

BBC broadcast meteorologist Helen Willetts said the first storms of the autumn were always a "bit of shock" and that some disruption was inevitable.

In the severe storms of last October, power firms were criticised for mass power cuts.

Falling trees were responsible for 97% of the cuts.