Storm Isha battered Cumbria leaving power cuts, flooding and widespread travel disruption in its wake.

Several weather warnings were put in place yesterday (January 21) for the whole of the county, including an alarming 'Red Warning' issued by Torro - the UK’s Tornado and Storm Research Organisation.

Forecasted to be the worst storm since Arwen, yellow rain warnings, as well as amber wind warnings, were put in place with more to come.

High winds battered the region reaching up 80 to 100mph in a few places which saw four lorries overturn on the M6 in separate incidents.

A number of roads were affected by flooding and fallen trees across both the Westmorland and Furness areas.

The Mail: Thousands of homes were left without power across the county with Barrow among the worst affected.

Electricity North West said its engineers made 'considerable progress despite the horrendous conditions' after high winds meant it was unsafe for team members to climb poles and trees to fix incidents.

Steph Trubshaw, Electricity North West’s customer director, said: "Conditions are some of the worst we’ve seen in a long time and for several hours, we saw wind speeds regularly reach 80mph.  

"Given how severe the weather was, last night, for safety reasons, we made the decision to stand teams down as it was simply too dangerous for engineers to climb. 

"This morning, hundreds of colleagues are going to be assessing damage on the network and where conditions allow, we’ll start to climb to and carry out permanent repairs."

National Rail also confirmed trains between ​Barrow-in-Furness/Skipton to Carlisle, in both directions are closed until further notice due to severe flooding caused by Storm Isha.

Passengers are advised to travel via Preston or Skipton and change at Lancaster for Carlisle and Barrow.

Northern Rail are still advising customers to not travel on these routes.

 

 

Just as Storm Isha leaves, Irish meteorological service Met Eireann has named another major weather event - Storm Jocelyn - which will hit Cumbria on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain from 11am on Tuesday until 7pm. 

Met Office Chief Meteorologist Steve Willington said: "Although this system will be a step down relative to Storm Isha, with the damage and clean up still underway, we could potentially see more impacts from Storm Jocelyn.

"Outbreaks of heavy rain on Tuesday could bring rainfall accumulations of 15 to 20 mm quite widely with 40 to 50 mm over higher ground in southwest Scotland, the Scottish Highlands and parts of northwest England."