Storm Ciaran pounded northern France with record-breaking gusts at almost 200km/h, killing a lorry driver, while southern England and other regions of Western Europe remain on high alert due to flood warnings, power outages, and major transport disruption. According to AFP, the driver was killed when a tree fell on the truck's cabin in the Ain department.
On November 1, around 1.2 million French houses lost electricity when a storm slammed the northwest coast, destroying trees.
"The wind gusts in Brittany are exceptional, and many absolute records have been broken," the national meteorological agency Meteo-France reported in "X."
Winds of 193 km/h were recorded at the village of Plugonvelin at the extreme extremity of the northwest coast, while gusts of 156 km/h were recorded in the port city of Brest in Brittany.
Large waves crashing down the coast of Cornwall, southern England, were caused by 135 km/h gusts, and hundreds of schools in the area were shuttered.
Residents on the Channel Island of Jersey were evacuated to hotels when winds of up to 100 mph (164 km/h) destroyed homes, according to local media.
The Netherlands also warned of severe gusts of up to 100km/h, advising workers to avoid commuting and canceling 206 flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, a key European hub.
Eurostar, which runs trains between the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, issued a warning that services "may be disrupted" and recommended customers to reschedule their trips if possible. Domestic train and boat services have also been impacted.
"Because of the warm autumn with lots of rain, the trees still have leaves and the ground is as wet as a sponge." As a result, particularly fragile trees are more likely to collapse. This is a significant contrast from an autumn storm, such as around the end of November, when all of the leaves have already fallen," said Roosmarien Knoll, a forecaster for Dutch public television. /BGNES
