A powerful storm system, named "Goretti" by Météo-France, moved across the United Kingdom and France on Friday, leaving downed trees and power cuts affecting nearly half a million customers.
The storm also spread snow across parts of Great Britain.
The worst of the 55,000 U.K. power outages were in the southwest at Cornwall, where 73 percent of National Grid U.K. power customers were without power as of Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US.
A weather station at Padstow NCI in Cornwall recorded a wind gust of 123 mph (198 km/h). One man had his home's roof ripped off as hail and rain poured in through cracks in the walls. Off the southwest shore, a peak gust of 99 mph (159 km/h) was reported at St. Mary's on the Isles of Scilly, the highest there since 1991, the Met Office said.
To the southeast, a 121 mph (195 km/h) gust was measured at Barfleur, on the tip of France's Cotentin peninsula. Winds were even worse in Normandy, France, with a wind gust of 132 mph (212 km/h) recorded in Gatteville-le-Phare. At one point, more than 380,000 customers were without power in France.
The storm affected rail services in the English West Midlands, as well as trains in France and Germany.
Travel and school disruptions in Scotland from a storm earlier this week were extended by Friday's storm. The nation was hit with 20 inches (51 cm) of snow on Monday, and many schools shuttered again on Friday, wrapping up a full week of closures.
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