Storm Boelo Kills Two in Britain and Cuts Power to Tens of Thousands

Two people are dead, tens of thousands are still without power, and engineers are racing the weather to reconnect homes across Britain. Storm Boelo was the second named storm to reach this country in a single weekend, and its winds closed roads, grounded flights and ferries, and stacked one recovery job on another.

Storm Boelo Kills Two in Britain and Cuts Power to Tens of Thousands

Glasgow, Scotland — Boelo is pronounced "Boo-Loh", and by Sunday evening it had made itself felt from the Hebrides to the German North Sea coast. The Met Office amber wind warnings ran from 21:00 on Saturday 24 October to 21:00 on Sunday 25 October across mainland Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the far north of England down to Carlisle, with a separate amber warning for the north-east of Northern Ireland that ended at 10:00. By the evening, only Orkney remained under a yellow warning.

The Second Storm in a Single Weekend

Storm Austen was the first named storm of the season, hitting southern England on Friday 23 October 2026 before continuing across northern continental Europe. Boelo arrived behind it, and the Met Office's chief forecaster Jason Kelly set out what was coming. "Storm Boelo will be felt across the UK this weekend, with the strongest winds and greatest potential for disruption in the north," he said. "Amber warnings are in place across mainland Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the far north of England, where gusts of 60-70mph are expected widely, with the potential for 80mph in exposed coastal locations."

The Met Office warned of "a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves" and said people should stay indoors as much as possible. The gusts arrived: 82mph on Tiree in the Inner Hebrides at about 04:00 on Sunday, 84mph in Argyll and Bute, 83mph in Snowdonia, and 75mph at South Uist Range earlier on Saturday. Rainfall since 08:00 on Saturday reached 72mm at White Barrow in Wiltshire, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued 29 flood warnings and 11 flood alerts.

Two Killed by Falling Trees

Police Scotland said a 60-year-old man was struck by a falling tree on a minor road at Mid Kelton near Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, at about 10:30 on Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the scene. "There are no suspicious circumstances and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal in due course," the force said.

A second man, in his 20s, died when a tree fell onto his moving car in Mill Hill, north London, at 12:40am on Sunday, according to PA reports. Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade. Police Scotland has confirmed the first death; no names for either man have been released.

Police Scotland said two women were injured by a fallen tree in the Poplar Avenue area of Aberfeldy, near the bridge known locally as the Bouncy Bridge, at about 12:50, and both were taken to hospital. Scaffolding collapsed in Streatham, south London, injuring two people. In Brussels, falling trees injured four people on Saturday, and German police said two were seriously hurt when scaffolding blew away at an autumn market in Nastaetten near Frankfurt.

The Power Map, and Why the Numbers Do Not Match

The outage figures do not agree, so read each one with its source and time attached. The Energy Networks Association said on Sunday morning that engineers had restored power to 344,900 customers but 82,600 remained disconnected, a figure that included more than 30,000 homes in Scotland. The same association said that as of 15:00 on Sunday 161,400 customers remained without power, a count covering its operators in the UK and Ireland. National Grid said at 15:00 it had restored 158,534 properties since Boelo arrived overnight on Friday.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said more than 32,500 of its customers had power restored but 47,000 remained without. SP Energy Networks said around 6,000 homes, mainly in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway, were also cut off, putting the Scottish total at around 53,000. The Scottish Government said at 15:30 that suppliers reported around 40,000 customers without supply and roughly 26,000 restored, with wind still hampering repair work.

NIE said about 7,000 customers in Northern Ireland remained without power as of 10:30, and that high winds had damaged the electricity system. SSEN reported 111 separate power cuts by 11:00, with outages across the Highlands, Argyll, the Western Isles and Orkney. Before the storm it moved to Yellow Alert status and texted more than 220,000 vulnerable customers.

Largs: A Third Day of Warnings

The Scottish Government said flooding affected several properties in Largs and Saltcoats and damaged some transport routes, with a number of roads blocked by fallen trees. Toni Dawson, who runs Geraldo's ice cream and gift shop in Largs, said the water there reached its "highest level ever".

Social Justice and Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, speaking as the warnings continued, said: "As we experience a third consecutive day of weather warnings with continued strong winds forecast until later today, it is important that people keep up to date on the impact the conditions are having in their local area." She added that travel disruption was likely to continue into Monday.

The Scottish Government's Resilience Room met on Sunday afternoon, attended by First Minister John Swinney, Somerville, Economy, Tourism and Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn, Minister for Agriculture, Marine and the Islands Jim Fairlie and Minister for Victims and Community Safety Kirsten Oswald, alongside the Met Office, SEPA, Transport Scotland and blue light services.

Planes, Ferries and the Roads That Are Still Shut

More than 1,500 flights were delayed and hundreds cancelled, with Amsterdam's Schiphol warning of cancellations and delays to and from the hub. At George Best Belfast City Airport, departures to London Heathrow, Glasgow, Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Kirkwall were cancelled, as were arrivals from Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham and Inverness. Belfast International cancelled 17 flights, and flights were also cancelled at Dublin Airport.

Aberdeen Airport lost almost all of its morning flights, including to Amsterdam, Heathrow, Sumburgh, Kirkwall and Newquay. Glasgow cancelled some services including to Heathrow, Dublin, Sumburgh, Kirkwall and Belfast, and Edinburgh warned conditions "may impact flight schedules".

CalMac said 27 of its 30 routes were affected, and the Claonaig to Lochranza 08:45 sailing on Monday was cancelled because MV Catriona was berthing overnight in Tarbert. P&O cancelled its 08:00 and 12:00 sailings between Cairnryan and Larne. Stena Line's Superfast ferries from Cairnryan to Belfast were off in the morning with the 17:45 "in doubt", and its Belfast to Cairnryan and Belfast to Liverpool sailings were cancelled. ScotRail imposed speed restrictions on all routes.

What Austen Did First

Austen's own numbers set the pattern. Gusts of 76mph were recorded at St Mary's Airport in the Isles of Scilly, 74mph at Aberporth in south Wales and 71mph at Culdrose in Cornwall, and National Grid restored power to 131,225 properties in south-west England by 19:00 on Saturday. Across the Channel, 288,600 French households lost supply at the peak on Friday with 23 departments on orange wind alert, 242,000 were still cut off at 18:00, and 24,700 remained off in Finistère at the end of the day, where firefighters answered 482 calls.

By Sunday, nearly 60,000 homes in France were still without power, and at least 10,000 in Germany, where the DWD forecast gusts of up to 100 km/h on the northern coast. One photograph distributed by the dpa agency and carried by Euronews captioned the weather at Dagebuell in northern Germany as "the storm system Manja", while British forecasters were tracking Boelo.

Why Two Storms in One Weekend Is the Story

One storm is a bad weekend. Two in two days is a different problem, because the ground is already saturated, the trees are already weakened and the engineers have not finished the first repair job before the second one lands. Belgian weatherman David Dehenauw of the KMI said Boelo had also become officially a Belgian storm, with gusts up to 80 km/h inland, and reached for the previous comparison. "It is 18 and 19 February 2022 since two different storms passed on two consecutive days," he said, when Eunice and Franklin followed one another.

That is the frame for everything: not one exceptional system, but a queue of them. The warnings ran back to back across the same three nations, and the second storm's peak arrived while tens of thousands of homes were still dark from the first.

The Warning for Tuesday

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for Tuesday 27 October, from 03:00 to midnight, covering counties Antrim, Down and Londonderry plus parts of northern England and Scotland. Gusts of 50-60mph are expected widely and 70mph or more in some coastal or exposed areas, with "some uncertainty in where, and how strong, the peak gusts will be".

Somerville said: "While we expect some respite from the adverse weather during the day on Monday, there is a possibility of more severe weather conditions early on in the week and we urge everyone to continue to follow advice and heed any warnings." ITV News asked whether a further named storm, Chloe, could follow. No forecaster has named one.

Monday Morning, and the Recovery

Network Rail reported that flooding overnight at Dalmarnock station submerged the tracks between the platforms and overwhelmed its pumps for a time; the station is now clear, while Bowling station was flooded by the River Clyde and that line has reopened. Traffic Scotland listed closures on the A1 at Ayton because of power cables on the carriageway, the A75 between Collin and Carrutherstown, the A82 at the Bridge of Orchy and the A78 Shore Road at Skelmorlie. The A8 at Port Glasgow was flooded.

The PSNI warned that the Ballyrobin Road was impassable in both lanes, which may affect journeys to Belfast International Airport, and that the Glenshane Road was affected near the Castledawson roundabout. Northern Powergrid advised customers "for whom being without power tonight is a significant problem to err on the side of caution and consider seeking alternative accommodation".

Stuart Wilson of Transport Scotland said: "The weekend of storms has brought challenges across the transport network and, in some cases, there will be significant recovery work required before we have the network back to normal. Our operating companies are working around the clock to restore parts of the trunk road network that have been impacted."

What Comes Next

The immediate task is restoration: power, roads, rail and ferry routes, with wind still slowing the work. The Met Office's Tuesday warning means the recovery window is short, and in Northern Ireland the cancellations have already run past the weekend. Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council scrapped its fireworks display at Ballymoney, Mid Ulster District Council cancelled its event at Cookstown, and Antrim and Newtownabbey postponed its V36 event to 1 November. Glentoran's game against Ballymena was called off, the Irish FA Women's Challenge Cup final was moved to Tuesday 27 October, and the Sunflower Trophy motorcycle meeting at Bishopscourt was cancelled.

Two men are dead: one confirmed by Police Scotland, one reported through PA. Tens of thousands of homes are still dark, and the official counts still do not agree with each other. Check the operators before you travel, and do not assume Monday's quieter weather will hold into Tuesday.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: The Guardian, PA, The Independent, ITV News, The Scotsman, Belfast Telegraph, BBC, the Scottish Government, SSEN, Euronews, VRT NWS, franceinfo and Ouest-France. Photographs: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images via The Guardian (cover); Bodo Marks/dpa via AP, carried by Euronews (Germany); Jane Barlow/PA, via The Guardian (A78 closure).