Red wind warning extended and thousands without power as gusts hit 100mph

A red danger to life warning for wind has been extended in Scotland where more than 35,000 properties have lost power and people have been urged to stay indoors.

A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire early on Friday afternoon – the strongest gust so far in the UK during Storm Eowyn, the Met Office said. A gust of 86mph was recorded at Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway at 9am.

Trains have been suspended across the country and hundreds of schools are shut, with vehicles blown over and roads closed in some areas due to debris.

Police Scotland said no motorists should travel in or to the red weather warning area.

One person has been taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary following a one-car crash on the A81 Strathblane Road near the entrance to Mugdock Country Park.

The Met Office red warning, which forecasts gusts up to 100mph, runs until 5pm and covers the central belt including Glasgow and Edinburgh, stretching north on the west coast to Jura in Argyll and Bute.

It originally stretched south to Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway but at around 11am on Friday this was extended to cover most of Dumfries and Galloway.

A yellow warning of wind covering the whole of Scotland is in force until midnight, an amber warning of wind south of Mull in the west to Montrose in the east is in force until 9pm, and an amber wind warning for northern Scotland is in force from 1pm on Friday until 6am on Saturday.

SP Energy Networks said there are currently 20,000 customers across central and southern Scotland without power and the company said its engineers are working to restore supplies where possible.

Aileen Rourke, of SP Energy Networks, said: “We’ve seen wind speeds of almost 90mph with conditions remaining treacherous, hampering our ability to assess and repair damage.

“As soon as it is safe to do so, our engineers will be out in the field working to get the power back on for people as soon as we can.”

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution said as of 12.30pm, it had successfully restored power to 9,660 customers who had lost supplies since the storm began early on Friday.

It said there are 15,771 customers without power, and as the “extremely severe” storm continues to move across Scotland, it expects further disruption.

SSEN said it has at least 10 times the usual number of people working in response to Storm Eowyn.

It has sent text messages to almost 170,000 people on its priority services register, and has been calling its most vulnerable customers to offer support.

SSEN’s director of customer operations for the north of Scotland, Andy Smith, said: “Storm Eowyn is proving to be exceptional, with wind gusts the like of which we’ve not seen in Scotland for many years.

“We’d been monitoring the storm for several days and took pre-emptive steps to move extra teams to the places that are being affected by the impact of this particularly severe weather.

“These are particularly strong wind gusts, reaching over 90mph in places, and they’re already causing damage and disruption.

“These extreme conditions are limiting our ability to get to fault locations at the moment, but I want to reassure our customers that we’ve planned for this and have the right resources in the right places so we can start repairing any damage to the network and restoring supplies as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

The storm has also caused disruption on the roads, with the A1 between Spott Roundabout and Cockburnspath, East Lothian, closed due to a number of overturned vehicles.

The A709 was closed on the Lockerbie side of Lochmaben in Dumfries and Galloway due to fallen trees between Lochmaben High Street and the Halleaths junction.

The A75 had closures at Collin bypass and Skyreburn Bridge, Dumfries and Galloway, due to fallen trees, as does the A76 at Newbridge, Leswalt High Road in Stranraer, the A746 at Glasserton Road, Newton Stewart, and the A709 at various places surrounding the Lockerbie area.

The Tay Road Bridge is closed in both directions, as is the pedestrian walkway, while the Forth Road, Erskine and Clackmannanshire bridges are also shut, and the Queensferry Crossing is open to cars only.

Two of five lanes on the Kingston Bridge in Glasgow were previously closed due to an overturned HGV, but it later reopened.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has 10 flood alerts and three flood warnings in place.

Schools and nurseries across Scotland are closed, except in five council areas, while non-urgent planned hospital procedures have been postponed in NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian.

Forecasters said the weather conditions bring a “risk of significant disruption to transport and power supplies as well as dangerous conditions outdoors”, with “very dangerous” driving conditions because of fallen trees and other debris.

They also warned of the potential for damage to buildings and homes.

In a post on X, First Minister John Swinney said: “The RED weather warning we have today is very serious. There are extensive school closures, transport disruption and many dangers from the strong wind.

“@PoliceScotland have issued do not travel advice. Please follow all of the advice and stay safe.”

Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Hilary Sloan said: “Our advice to any road user is not travelling, and that’s really the message we want to get across.

“It’s really unusual for us to have a red weather warning and that advice is in place for the duration of that warning.”

Buses across Scotland have also been widely disrupted and many ferry services across the country have been cancelled.

Glasgow and Edinburgh airports saw dozens of flights cancelled on Friday morning due to the weather conditions.

While no trains are running in Scotland on Friday, Network Rail Scotland has posted images on social media of railway infrastructure that has been damaged, including a tree resting against overhead wires above the track near Largs, North Ayrshire, and a fallen tree which damaged overhead wires at nearby Kilwinning.

ScotRail said the storm has caused significant damage to infrastructure and Network Rail colleagues will need to carry out a full assessment of the network, remove debris and undertake repairs before services can resume.

The operator said: “Unfortunately, this means that ScotRail services will be heavily impacted tomorrow (Saturday), and customers should not expect any trains to operate before 12pm at the earliest.

“The safety of our staff and our customers is our absolute priority, and we will only run trains when it is safe to do so.”

Public buildings, such as libraries, have also been closed by a number of local authorities.

The Deputy First Minister urged Scots in the central belt to follow the advice not to travel.

Appearing on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Kate Forbes said: “It is so important that people follow Police Scotland’s advice not to travel because if people stay at home and don’t travel then it means they don’t invite that risk to themselves.”

Ms Forbes also warned that recovery from Storm Eowyn could “take longer than we all hope”.

She added: “It is important our expectations are managed by how quickly things can return to normal and there may well be continuing disruption tomorrow.”