Storm Gerrit: ‘Tornado’ hits Manchester as UK weather travel chaos continues – live

Here are more images showing the damage from a suspected tornado in Greater Manchester:

A landslide which closed the A9 overnight at Scrabster, in northwest Scotland, has been cleared.

Flood warnings have been issued in 34 locations across the UK, with flooding deemed possible in a further 182 places.

In England, there are 23 warnings in place – meaning “flooding is expected”, while there are 11 in Scotland and one in Wales.

All ferries between Dover and France are currently operating with delays due to strong winds in the Channel.

Train operator Avanti West Coast said a tree falling on overhead wires between Rugby and Lichfield Trent Valley means some lines are blocked.

Journey times for services from London Euston towards the North West are being extended as trains are diverted via the Midlands.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution said that as of 7.45am on Thursday supplies had been restored to just over 31,500 homes, while just over 14,000 remained without power.

Director of corporate affairs Graeme Keddie told BBC Radio Scotland: “Many of those are in the north-east and Shetland which saw later impact into yesterday afternoon and evening, and that will be very much our priority through the course of today.

“One of the main impacts we’ve seen is around access to faults – so blocked roads, flooding in fields, and issues with snow.

“We’re very hopeful that that will ease today but that has meant our teams on the ground have been saying that [in] the time it’d take to fix two or three faults they have only been able to fix one, but we are hopeful of further progress today as weather conditions have eased.”

Asked how long it will be before power is restored to all customers in Scotland, he said: “Based on the impact, particularly in the north-east, we do believe that some customers, particularly in areas that have been impacted heavily or rural locations, will be into Friday.”

Several clips on social media appear to show the suspected tornado as it passed through Tameside last night.

A second clip appears to further evidence residents’ reports of a deafening noise which “sounded as if a plane was coming down the house”.

Around 100 properties are believed to have been damaged in Greater Manchester by the suspected tornado which tore through the area last night.

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder reported yesterday evening:

British Airways has cancelled 20 flights to and from London Heathrow airport on Thursday due to the impact of Storm Gerrit.

Six serve domestic destinations: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester

The remainder are in Continental Europe: Copenhagen, Geneva, Hamburg, Lisbon, Paris CDG, Prague and Zurich.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “As a result of continued air-traffic control restrictions put in place because of Storm Gerrit, we have had to make some adjustments to our schedule.

“We have apologised to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”