Hundreds of flood warnings and travel disruption after Storm Henk

Travel has been seriously disrupted after Storm Henk battered a large swathe of the UK, with hundreds of flood warnings still in place.

On Tuesday, a man in his 50s died after a tree fell on the car he was driving in Gloucestershire, police said.

Large parts of England and Wales experienced strong winds and heavy rain during the storm.

More than 250 flood warnings are in place in England, while thousands of homes are without power.

At Billing Aquadrome, a leisure park in Northampton, and surrounding business units, hundreds of people were told to evacuate amid rising water levels from the River Nene, locals told the BBC.

Meanwhile, hundreds of properties near the River Severn in the West Midlands are flooded, in some cases for the fourth time this winter, BBC correspondent Phil Mackie in Worcester said.

In the East Midlands, floodwater either breached or surrounded several homes in Bottleacre Lane in Loughborough, Leicestershire, according to PA Media, leaving some people trapped inside their homes.

In Tenby, a severe flood warning is in place along the River Ritec where there is a substantial risk to life and reports of raw sewage in floodwater.

Eight other flood warnings are in place across Wales, and one in Scotland.

There is likely to be little let-up in the wet weather; the Met Office has issued a yellow warning for rain across much of southern England from 12:00 GMT on Thursday until 03:00 on Friday.

The forecaster says further flooding, travel disruption and power cuts may occur.

It comes as train services were slowly getting back on track after flooding and power failures on Tuesday and further disruption on some lines throughout Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday evening, Network Rail, which owns and manages the infrastructure, said the situation was "much improved" after fallen trees had disrupted several South Western services on Tuesday and overnight.

However, some lines remained blocked on Great Western Railway's network and parts of Thameslink, Southern, and Great Northern services continued to face disruption while infrastructure repairs were being carried out.

The bad weather also uprooted trees and felled branches, causing treacherous conditions, power cuts and major road closures.

The Energy Networks Association, which collates data from all energy providers, said about 800 homes were without power as of Wednesday evening. Power went down in more than 107,000 other homes during Storm Henk but has since been restored.

On Tuesday, a man in his 50s from Bath, who has not yet been named, died after a tree fell on his car, police said. Emergency services were called to Tetbury Road near Kemble at about 15:15 GMT, but despite the best efforts of the paramedics, he died at the scene.

In Orpington, south-east London, a woman was taken to hospital after being struck by a falling tree. Her injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

One man told of the "nerve-wracking" moment a roof hatch on a London Eye pod began to blow off in the high winds, while he was 135 metres up in the air. "One guy was saying his prayers - he was very nervous indeed," he said.

In Birmingham, Liam Stych was hailed a hero after jumping into floodwater to rescue a woman and her three-year-old daughter from a partially submerged car.

"I said to the woman, 'now's your time you know, take my hand and we can go'," he said. "At that moment she just put her arms out to me for help."

The strongest gusts on Tuesday were recorded at the Needles Old Battery - an exposed, unpopulated, coastal site in the Isle of Wight - reaching 94mph (151km/h).

The biggest inland gust of 81mph (130km/h) was recorded at Exeter Airport.

The storm has now largely moved onto Scandinavia. Winds are forecast to be lighter and there will also be sunnier spells during the rest of the week.

BBC Weather Presenter Simon King said: "By the weekend and into next week we're expecting high pressure to build which means that the weather will turn even more settled. Higher pressure means it'll be largely dry with sunshine amounts also increasing.

"With this high pressure becoming established though, we cut off the milder south-westerly winds with colder air returning giving chilly days and overnight frosts."

Henk was the eighth named storm in three months. It was named much later than usual - hours before its impact - because it was small and still developing early on Tuesday.

The impact of climate change on the frequency of storms is still unclear, but we know that increased sea surface temperatures warm the air above and make more energy available to drive hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. As a result, they are likely to be more intense with more extreme rainfall.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Meanwhile, 2023 was provisionally the second warmest year in the UK since records began, the Met Office said. The warmest year on record was 2022. Global temperatures are rising mainly because of human activity, leading to more intense heatwaves and rising sea-levels.

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