Storms Boelo and Austen cut power to 150,000 homes
Winds of up to 135 km/h were recorded in western Scotland, and phone networks went down in places.
26 Oct 2026 0 reads Compiled with AI
Storms Boelo and Austen battered northern Europe on Sunday. Together they cut power to more than 150,000 homes, forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled and silenced phone networks in places.
Storm specifics overview
Winds of up to 135 km/h were recorded in Argyll and Bute, in western Scotland. Fallen trees and power cables blocked roads and rail lines across the country, and the storms swelled rivers in northern England. The Met Office warned of danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves.
In the UK, about 82,000 homes lost power, while France saw nearly 60,000 outages and Germany at least 10,000. At the height of Storm Austen, French utility Enedis said 288,000 homes had no electricity. At midday Sunday, 59,000 were still without power, and 2,600 technicians and contractors were working to restore it.
Transport was badly hit. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, cancelled dozens of flights on Sunday. AFP counted some 90 cancellations on the airport website, mainly to European cities including Paris, Rome and Dublin. In Brussels, falling trees injured four people, and in Nastatten, Germany, scaffolding blown away by Storm Austen seriously injured two people at an autumn market.
Weather agencies warned of stronger winds still. Germany’s DWD predicted winds of up to 100 km/h on the northern coast on Sunday. Flood warnings were also in place, and high wind and rain were expected in Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden, where some ferries were cancelled and some Swedish train services suspended.