Storm Ellen brings gusts of up to 89mph to Ireland

Storm Ellen has begun to lash parts of Ireland with high winds.

Gusts up to 89mph were recorded at Roches Point,Cork by the Met Office and up to 66mph was recorded in Finner, Met Eireann reported.

Footage on social media showed strong winds and sparking power lines in Cobh in Ireland, while West Cork TD Holly Cairns shared video of flooding in Skibbereen.

One business, Fusion Home Interiors, said its car park had been flooded, tweeting: “The ferocity and speed that our yard filled was frightening, hugely disappointing to see, so much money spent on a flood relief scheme and have to fight to keep water out of your property.

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“We would like to say a huge thanks to Skibbereen Fire Brigade and Skibbereen Civil Defence, along with all our staff who worked tirelessly to keep the water out of our shop, we will be forever grateful.”

Cork South West TD Christopher O’Sullivan tweeted: “This shouldn’t be happening in Skibbereen. Millions spent on flood protection. The entire town should be dry even in this intense rainfall. Part of me is not surprised. The flood committee flagged that this area needed more protection.”

He added that the Office of Public Works “need to provide answers”.

Earlier, people on camping holidays were warned trees could easily come down as parts of the UK braced for winds of more than 70mph to hit.

A Met Office yellow weather warning for wind stretches from the north of Scotland down to the Cornish coast and remains in place until the early hours of Friday.

A separate yellow warning for very strong winds was also in place for Northern Ireland, while the Scotland Environment Protection Agency had five flood warnings in place for the country’s south-western coast.

Warnings of potential travel delays and the possibility of power cuts will extend eastwards on Friday to also include central and northern England, as well as all of Wales.

Forecaster Luke Miall said Ellen will be felt “for the next couple of days” and is “not going to move through really quickly so we will continue to see a really big area of low pressure through the rest of this week.”

The stormy conditions come just a week after scorching temperatures across the UK with the mercury hitting 34C (93F) for six consecutive days.

Mr Miall said: “We have gone from one extreme to the other, the first thing that springs to my mind with these sorts of events is climate change.

“We are likely to see these swings in extreme events more frequently. Although I couldn’t necessarily say these two events were directly caused by climate change, it’s likely that these sorts of swings in our weather will become more frequent.”