Storm Noa: Search for woman swept out to sea as rollercoasters suspended in 96mph winds

Hundreds of homes suffer power cuts, rail services disrupted and woman badly hurt by falling scaffolding

A search was launched for a woman swept out to sea on Wednesday as Storm Noa wreaked havoc across the UK, with gusts of wind reaching 96mph.

Hundreds of properties were left without power, trees came down and travel was disrupted in southern England and Wales after a swath of wintry weather swept across the country on Wednesday.

A Blackpool rollercoaster and a nearby fairground were forced to close when the disruption extended northwest to Lancashire.

A coastguard helicopter scours the rough sea off Brighton (Getty Images)

Large waves crash into the seafront (Getty Images)

In Brighton, the Coastguard, RNLI and police launched a search-and-rescue operation for a woman thought to be in the water near the Palace Pier.

In Fareham, Hampshire, a woman was reported to have been seriously injured when scaffolding fell into a shopping street.

Rail services including Southern, Thameslink and Great Western Rail reported delays or cancellations because of the winds, which were named Storm Noa by Meteo France, the French weather forecaster.

Major motorways were also closed, including two sections of the M4 in Wales, as well as the M48 Severn Bridge, where National Highways reported gusts of 68mph.

Coastal areas in the southwest were worst hit, with the National Grid reporting in the afternoon that 268 properties in Devon and 43 in Cornwall had been left without power.

But homes across a wide swath of southern England, from Somerset to East and West Sussex, also suffered power failures, with some overhead electricity lines reportedly falling onto roads.

A search-and-rescue team at the Palace Pier, Brighton (Getty Images)

Waves break over Newhaven Lighthouse (AFP via Getty Images)

A woman was injured when her car hit a tree that had fallen on the A377 near Copplestone, Devon, police said, and a tree fell on a house in Cockington, Torquay, the BBC reported. Some campers left their campsites as winds tore down tents.

Winds of up to 70mph were forecast, but the strongest in the UK, recorded by the Met Office at The Needles on The Isle of Wight, was 96mph.

At Sandown on the island, winds snapped two relatively new flag poles on the seafront, On the Wight reported.

A ferry coming into Dover is buffeted by strong winds (PA)

The Environment Agency issued eight flood alerts, including for the River Thames in London and tributaries.

In Northern Ireland, US president Joe Biden was forced to cancel his planned helicopter journey from Belfast to Co Louth in the republic, and travel by road instead.

The UK’s Met Office reported “large waves in coastal areas in south Wales and southern England”.

The Royal Parks closed parts of Greenwich Park in south London, including the playground, over the high winds.

The storm also reached as far north as Lancashire, where a popular fairground in Morecambe was forced to close after storms damaged rides.

The areas covered by Wednesday’s weather warning (Met Office)

At Blackpool Pleasure Beach, customers on the Big One rollercoaster had to be escorted down after the ride was stopped because of the windy weather, and the rollercoaster remained closed for the rest of the day.

In Cumbria, a roof was ripped off a building and into a neighbouring bar, the News & Star reported.

In the search in Brighton for the missing woman, a Coastguard helicopter was seen sweeping the area.

A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman said: “HM Coastguard’s Newhaven, Littlehampton and Shoreham Coastguard Rescue Teams, alongside Shoreham and Newhaven RNLI all-weather lifeboats, Sussex Police and the Coastguard helicopter from Lee-On-Solent are coordinating a search for a possible person in the water at Brighton Palace Pier, following concerns first raised to emergency services shortly before 4pm.”

Tom Morgan, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “In addition to the strong winds, we’ve seen heavy showers and thunderstorms relatively widely through England and Wales this afternoon, particularly in south-east England and East Anglia.

“We’ve also seen snow across the higher ground of Wales in the Pennines, and across the Scottish Highlands.”

Scotland also experienced heavy showers, with up to 40mm of rain in western areas.

Folkestone harbour (PA)

Temperatures in Scotland remained around 5C but were forecast dip to freezing overnight, particularly in the north of the country.

A yellow warning for wind was lifted in Northern Ireland, though some coastal areas experienced winds of 50mph.

Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said: “The set-up is low pressure dominant both in the southwest and in Scotland.

“Overnight tonight and into Thursday, we are expecting these low-pressure systems to combine and move into the North Sea. This will leave behind showers across much of the UK with winds decreasing throughout the day on Thursday.”

Although the weather system is a named storm in France, it is not classed as such by the Met Office.

The first storm to be named by the Met Office, or Irish or Dutch weather services, this season will still be Storm Antoni, in accordance with the 2022/23 name list.