Britain’s 26,000-plus homes are now without heat after temperatures dropped to -6C over the night. Ministers have been accused of leading a national scandal in this power blackout.

Over a million homes were without power due to winds gusting up to 100 mph. These windstorms caused damage to power lines and the destruction of thousands upon thousands of trees. Parts of Scotland and North East England are still without electricity.

Northern Powergrid reported last night that 15,000 North of England homes were without power while 6000 Electricity North West customers were left cut off following Storm Arwen’s strike last Friday.

Some outages were reported north of the border. Scottish Energy Networks stated that over 5,000 people were still without power in Aberdeenshire.

Temperatures dropped as low as 21F at Cairnwell Mountain in Highlands, and as low as -6C in Worcestershire. Pershore was the coldest location lower down in the UK with temperatures dropping to -3C (26.4F).

Met Office has also issued an Ice Warning for Britain, including up to 2in (5cm), of snow in Scotland and North York Moors. There have been some flakes seen even as far as London.

Cut-off residents in remote areas have resorted to gathering water from streams with pumps not working – and there were calls to send in the Army and declare a major incident to save hundreds of ‘forgotten’ elderly residents.

Some 24 schools in Aberdeenshire remained shut yesterday, while Conservative MP Richard Holden said a rural surgery in his North West Durham constituency had lost £10,000 worth of flu vaccines when its fridges cut out.

One Country Durham resident who lost power due to Storm Arwen said that she felt ‘inconsolable’ and scared after seeing how strong winds destroyed power lines, uprooted trees, and blocked roads.

Snow falls on a street in Middlesbrough this morning as sub-zero conditions continue for many parts of the UK

This morning, it snowed on Middlesbrough Street as the UK continues to experience sub-zero weather.

A car drives through snowfall in Middlesbrough this morning as thousands of people remain without power in parts of the UK

As thousands remain without electricity in the UK, a car speeds through snowfall at Middlesbrough today.

Jessica May Teasdale (35), an architect ironmonger, lost her Stanley home on Friday night. She described it as a “nightmare” and claimed that the Government has ‘abandoned” her area.

Ms Teasdale stated that it was a nightmare, she’s inconsolable and afraid. Are we going to become more sick until we get pneumonia? It was a nightmare. I was crying this morning thinking about how it would end.

The Met Office has an ice warning for much of Britain today

Today’s Met Office Ice Warning is for most of Britain

It’s a constant winter cold that is making our health worse. It’s almost as if we have been forgotten. Although I am not sad to say so, I can’t wait to get up tomorrow.

Kwasi Kwarteng (Business Secretary) promised to do everything he could to make sure power is restored by Christmas. However, he said that severe weather events such as Storm Arwen may become more frequent because of climate change.

Doctor Lily FultonHumble lives in Northumberland near Alnwick and is a mother to a 7-week-old and sick child. She told BBC that her family had lost the ability to go on without power for another night.

‘It’s pretty cold – and when you’re feeding a baby every two hours it’s even colder,’ she said.

Linda Dunk and Paul Dunk (in their 70s) live close to Torphins in Aberdeenshire. Mrs Dunk explained that “slowly this building gets colder and colder.” ‘We’re desperate.’

Steven Bridgett is a Tory councillor in Rothbury in Northumberland. He said, “This should have be declared a serious incident, and then we could get the Army mobilised.”

Yesterday’s statement by Ofgem, the Energy Regulator, stated that they would investigate how storms were handled and whether GB’s infrastructure is resilient to extreme weather.

The Energy Networks Association issued this photograph yesterday of a fallen power line in the snow at an unknown location

Yesterday’s photograph of a snow-covered powerline was released by the Energy Networks Association.

The Energy Networks Association also released this photograph yesterday of workers repairing a broken power line in Britain

Yesterday’s photo of workers fixing a damaged power line in Britain was also published by the Energy Networks Association

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said to the Commons that ‘at most 7,000 homes’ within his Westmorland-Lonsdale constituency remained without electricity, and some are facing another week of blackouts.

Northern Ireland has had the warmest and mildest autumn in history, while Britain’s third-severest is for all of its citizens.

According to Met Office provisional data, Northern Ireland had its warmest Autumn on record. The rest of the UK saw the third-warmest.

According to forecasters, in the UK, September, October, November and December, the average temperature was 11.87C (51.57F) and Northern Ireland was 10.95C (41.1F).

England experienced its fourth-warmest autumn in records since 1884. The average temperature was 11.64C (52.2F).

Scotland was third in terms of temperature, with an average temperature 9.48C (49.06F), and Wales third at 11.18C (52.2F).

National Climate Information Centre’s Dr Mark McCarthy described November as an extremely’mild, dry’ month for all regions except the north west.

He stated that although many people will be able to recall November’s effects of Storm Arwen in particular in the North East but the overall month was dry and had slightly higher temperatures than average for this time period, they are likely to forget about the rest.

“A mild, dry, and sunny month is what we can expect from November 2021. The exception to the extreme north-west, where there was more than average precipitation.

The unusually hot autumn in Northern Ireland came after the third-warmest year on record. This was also the time that a new maximum temperature was established.

This record was set when it reached 31.3C (88.34F at Castlederg, County Tyrone) in July.

Also, September was the UK’s 2nd warmest month. This was followed up by October which was warm and humid and saw average temperatures increase 1.4C.

A majority of the UK had a dry autumn, with only 93% more rain than average.

However, some areas in northern parts experienced wetter weather. Orkney saw 480.6mm more rain than its average at 482mm.

 

He said they were feeling ‘forgotten’ and asked Mr Kwarteng: “Will he now task the Army with providing support to the engineers in Cumbria to accelerate the solution?” 

He also called for generators to be provided to every Cumbrian community.

Mary Kelly Foy (Labour MP for Durham City) said that the power outages continue to be a “national scandal”, while Grahame Morris, Easington Labour MP, called the response “lamentable”.

Mr Holden said a rural surgery in his North West Durham constituency had lost £10,000 worth of flu vaccines when its fridges lost power. 

He said that some communities are very remote and have been warned it could take a while before full power is available.

“Can he make every effort to ensure that they are connected well in advance of Christmas?” 

Kwarteng responded: “Being without power up until Christmas is just unacceptable. I will publicly state that, and I will do all I can to ensure that it doesn’t happen.”

He said, “Clearly Storm Arwen was an extraordinary event that we’ve not seen in at least 60 years.” Future extreme weather events should be anticipated. Our system must be resilient.

It was unacceptable that some people waited up to 2 hours for a phone call from an emergency power line.

The Energy Networks Association reports that electricity is now available to 97% of properties which were cut off.

But it said it would be at least the end of the week – seven days after the devastating storm – before it is back on for many others.

It said that isolated properties are difficult to access due to the ‘catastrophic damage’ to the electricity grid. 100 poles were snapped at one location.

Hot food and welfare centres have been established by energy companies that work with local authorities, emergency services and the British Red Cross.

In Scotland, Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) said it hoped most people would see the lights back on today. It warned, however that it could take a week for all houses to be reached after the storm.

Graeme Keddie, SSEN director of corporate affairs told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme: ‘We are confident we have a handle on what we can restore in the next couple of days.

‘We are looking at making good progress and expect it will be the last final few homes on Friday.’ 

SP Energy Networks stated that repair teams were on the Borders all night and were hoping to turn the power back on by the morning.  

Storm Arwen continues to wreck havoc on education in Aberdeenshire. Some pupils are still likely to be absent from the classroom tomorrow.

A fallen tree in the snow at Ullswater in the Lake District, shown in a photograph issued by the National Trust yesterday

Yesterday’s photograph shows a fallen tree in snow at Ullswater, Lake District.

A fallen tree at Cragside in Northumberland, shown in a photograph issued by the National Trust yesterday

Photograph taken yesterday by the National Trust of Northumberland showing a tree that has fallen at Cragside, Northumberland

A fallen tree at Wray Castle in the Lake District, as shown in this photograph issued by the National Trust yesterday

As shown in this photo taken by National Trust yesterday, a fallen tree is seen at Wray Castle in Lake District.

A fallen tree at Bodnant Garden in North Wales, as shown in this photograph issued by the National Trust yesterday

Bodnant Garden, North Wales: A tree that has fallen as shown by this photo taken yesterday by the National Trust

After 170 schools in Aberdeenshire being closed Monday and Tuesday, 24 primary and secondary school were either partially or fully shut down yesterday.

Some schools remain without electricity, and others can’t be reached due to the inability of transport services.

Crudie Primary is no longer safe because the fallen pylon remains. Turriff Academy pupils in S3 were advised to leave yesterday. S4-S6 pupils won’t be able to attend today because of staff shortages. 

Customers are entitled to £70 for the first 24 hours of power loss – or 48 hours if conditions are classed as severe – plus a further £70 for each extra 12 hours without electricity, but there is a cap of £700.