Storm Austen heads towards Benelux as Boelo warning raises fresh weekend risks
Storm Austen swept across north-western France on Friday, leaving widespread power cuts and transport disruption before moving towards the Low Countries. Enedis reported that about 288,600 French households were temporarily without electricity during the day, with Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Normandy and Hauts-de-France among the hardest-hit areas.
Fallen trees disrupted roads and rail services. Train traffic was suspended across Normandy, while commuter services around Paris faced delays and some flights were diverted. Météo-France said the storm was moving towards Benelux on Friday afternoon, allowing orange alerts to be lifted in more than half of the French departments previously under warning.
Britain also experienced outages, with National Grid reporting restoration work affecting more than 12,000 homes. The immediate concern is now shifting to a second system, Storm Boelo, expected to bring another spell of severe weather over the weekend.
The UK Met Office has issued an amber wind warning for much of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland and northern England. Widespread gusts of 60–70 mph are forecast for Saturday night and Sunday, with exposed coastal locations potentially seeing gusts of up to 80 mph. Ireland’s meteorological service has also issued orange-level warnings for heavy rain or strong winds in several counties, warning of possible travel disruption and local flooding.
