NI weather: More travel disruption as Storm Jocelyn follows Isha

The main road to Belfast International Airport was among roads closed on Tuesday evening as this week's second storm hit Northern Ireland.

High winds and fallen trees due to Storm Jocelyn have resulted in some road closures, with some train journeys and flights also affected.

A yellow warning for wind is in force until 13:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Jocelyn followed Storm Isha which blew in on Sunday, causing power cuts that are still affecting 3,000 customers.

NIE Networks estimated the number of customers affected by outages would rise again as Jocelyn brought strong winds over Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

The company said it would continue working to restore supplies where it is safe to do so.

Storm Jocelyn was not expected to be as severe as Storm Isha. However, gusts of up to 71mph were recorded in Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening.

Up until 22:00 GMT the strongest gusts measured were at Castlederg (71mph), Orlock Point (71mph) and Magilligan (59mph).

The Met Office said that, following the impact of Storm Isha, "resilience is expected to be lower", which could hamper ongoing recovery and repair efforts.

There could be further damage to buildings, power cuts, and disruption to transport, it said.

Old Stone Road, the main road to the international airport, was closed between the A6 Belfast Road and Seven Mile Straight on Tuesday evening due to a fallen tree.

The A23 Ballygowan Road was also closed at Moneyreagh due to a fallen tree, while Foyle Bridge in Derry was closed to high-sided vehicles due to strong winds.

In Lisburn, the traffic lights went out of action at the junction of Ballinderry Road and Knockmore Road, amid power failures in the area.

Some flights to and from George Best Belfast City Airport have been cancelled on Tuesday.

Flights scheduled to arrive from Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh are not going ahead as planned, while one flight scheduled to depart earlier to Manchester was also cancelled.

Dublin Airport has also experienced eight flight cancellations, seven "go-arounds" and two Dublin-bound flights were diverted to Belfast.

Speaking earlier, Alex Houston of NIE Networks told BBC NI's Evening Extra programme that about 250 electricity poles and 300 wires had already been badly damaged during Isha.

He said there was still a lot of damage across Northern Ireland, with fallen trees, fallen wires and broken poles. He advised members of the public to be cautious and report all faults, adding that NIE Networks was working 24-7 to restore power to all those affected.

However, he confirmed that further damage is expected from Storm Jocelyn through the night.

Damage to the roof of Titanic Belfast has also caused the visitor attraction to close on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The site's operations director Siobhan Lynch said pre-booked customers will be notified and refunded and has apologised for the inconvenience.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland reported it had 670 call-outs related to Storm Isha between 15:00 on Sunday and 03:00 on Monday.

In County Londonderry, a motorist died after a tree hit his car in Limavady.

Multiple trees, including three of the famous Dark Hedges beeches, were damaged in the storm leaving some roads impassable.

In the Republic of Ireland, a yellow warning is in place across the country from Tuesday afternoon, into Wednesday morning.

Weather service Met Éireann also issued status orange warnings - the second-highest alert - for counties Mayo and Galway, effective until midnight, and for County Donegal, effective until 02:00 on Wednesday.

ESB Networks have said 14,000 customers had lost power on Tuesday.

This is in addition to 24,000 premises, mostly in the north west, still without power due to Storm Isha.

The company has restored power to approximately 221,000 homes, farms and businesses since Sunday's weather warnings, it said.

Electricity supplier ESB's Mark Madigan said extra resources were being deployed to the north west.

County Donegal, where about 25,000 customers were without power, was particularly affected.

"We have network on the ground and damaged infrastructure on the ground which is going to take all of today and possibly into tomorrow to try and fix and restore," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today.

The disruption also affected thousands of air travellers across the UK and Ireland.

Storm Jocelyn, which has been named by Irish weather service Met Éireann, is the 10th this season.

It was named after County Armagh-born astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

It is the first time there has been a storm beginning with J since Storm Jake in March 2016.