Chaos as region battered again by rain and gales

The Met Office said some of the highest wind speeds recorded in the country yesterday were at Bradfield, near Sheffield.

A spokesman said the weather station on the edge of the Pennines had clocked gusts of 93mph, while wind speeds nationally had peaked at 112mph at Great Dun Fell in the north Pennines.

Outside Yorkshire, a woman and a 10-year-old boy were taken to hospital after a tree fell on their car outside a primary school in Hertfordshire and two people were injured when damaged overhead cable equipment smashed a window on a train near Ely in Cambridgeshire. All four sustained minor injuries.

Roads chaos was reported around Yorkshire, where a lorry driver was taken to hospital when an HGV overturned on the A1 at Leeming. There were also road closures on the A1M and the M18 in South Yorkshire and the Woodhead Pass. Sheffield’s new Tesco superstore in Saville Street, which opened just weeks ago, saw part of its roof ripped off and Humberside Police urged motorists to take care because of fallen trees, with reports of obstructions in areas of Grimsby, Hull, Bridlington, Driffield and Snaith.

North Yorkshire Fire Service said crews had been called out to localised flooding at a small number of homes in the Skipton area and firefighters used a boat to help rescue a barge in danger of overturning when it was caught in moorings on the River Ouse in central York.

Crews were called to two incidents of cars trapped in floods– one in Acaster Malbis, near York, and the other at Embsay, near Skipton.

Yorkshire is today expected to be drier, with some rain spreading eastwards this afternoon. Winds will become stronger in exposed areas.

Full forecast: Back Page.