A section of the 'Nymphs of the Seine' statue on the Alexandre III bridge in Paris was captured in a heavy snowfall on November 21, 2024, as the city was under the second highest weather warning issued by the French national weather service for snow.
Ireland, Britain, and France experienced significant travel disruptions on Saturday, with one fatality reported, as a winter storm swept through northwest Europe, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, snow, and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England confirmed that a man died after a tree fell onto his car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. West Yorkshire Police are investigating whether a second traffic-related death is linked to the storm, although the road was not icy at the time of the incident.
Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed roads, as well as some ferry and train routes on both sides of the Irish Sea. Channel ports and airports in Britain were severely impacted, while tens of thousands in France remained without power following Storm Caetano on Thursday. Hundreds of passengers were stranded when trains were halted due to power cuts.
Media footage showed flooding in western Ireland, which also led to rail closures in Northern Ireland. Snow impacted travel across Britain, with the heaviest snowfall recorded in Scotland and parts of northern and central England. The UK Met Office issued snow and ice warnings for these regions, stating that there was a 'good chance some rural communities could be cut off.' Scottish hills could see up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) of snow, while winds approaching 113 kilometres (70 miles) per hour were recorded in Britain.
Ferry operator DFDS canceled services on some routes until Monday, with sailings from Newhaven and Dover in southern England to Dieppe and Calais in France severely affected. Flights were disrupted at Newcastle airport due to heavy snow, with some flights diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh. Avanti West Coast, which runs rail services between England and Scotland, advised customers not to attempt travel beyond the northern English city of Preston, as it canceled numerous trains. National Highways also issued a 'severe weather alert,' warning of 'blizzard conditions' affecting Yorkshire and northeast England, with a number of road closures announced.
Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, issued a warning for 'very strong winds and heavy rain.' The worst affected areas for power outages in Ireland were in western and northwestern counties, according to ESB Networks, which runs the country's electricity system. 'Crews and contractors are deployed and restoring power in impacted areas where it is safe to do so,' it said. In Britain, the National Grid operator said power had been restored to 'many homes and businesses' but more than 4,000 properties across the country were still without electricity on Saturday -- the majority in southwest England. Some 47,000 homes remained without power in northern France on Saturday, two days after the country was battered by Storm Caetano, power company Enedis said. Up to 270,000 people had been cut off due to the storm but Enedis said it had 2,000 technicians working to reconnect electricity lines torn down by winds of up to 130kph. Several hundred passengers were stranded on two trains in western France halted by power cuts. Some 200 people on a train going from Hendaye to Bordeaux and 400 on high-speed TGV going from Hendaye to Paris spent up to nine hours in the carriages. Junior transport minister Francois Dourovray told RTL radio that up to 1,000 passengers on different trains were affected by the power cut.
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