Storm Austen batters France and UK with winds of up to 160 km/h

Storm Austen, the first named storm of the 2026 autumn season, battered coastal areas of France and the UK on Friday 23 October, bringing powerful winds, heavy rain and towering waves. Brittany, Cornwall and Devon were among the hardest-hit regions, with gusts reaching 160 km/h at Pointe du Raz in Finistère, while winds of up to 80 mph were forecast for exposed headlands in south-west England. Along the Finistère coast, gusts of 120 to 140 km/h whipped up rough seas. At Lanildut harbour, waves several metres high crashed against a navigation marker, yachts rocked violently at their moorings and a pleasure boat was left capsized and partially submerged. Heavy rain flooded parts of the harbour, while fallen branches littered nearby roads. Further along the coast, large waves pounded the shoreline at Le Conquet, where boats remained moored in the port. In Rennes, emergency crews used chainsaws to remove a large tree uprooted beside the River Vilaine, temporarily blocking traffic on a nearby boulevard. Across the Channel, fallen branches forced the closure of a road in Hayle, Cornwall, as workers cleared the debris. Strong winds and downpours also swept across southern England, with Devon among the areas exposed to the worst conditions. The storm's strongest winds and heaviest seas were concentrated along the Atlantic and Channel coasts before the weather system moved eastwards across northern France and southern England.