What's happened
Storm Goretti swept across Europe, causing fatalities, power outages, and travel chaos. A man in Cornwall died after a falling tree, while hundreds of thousands faced outages and severe weather warnings across the UK, France, and Germany. The storm's multi-hazard impact continues to disrupt daily life.
What's behind the headline?
What the papers say
France 24 reports that at least 15 people have died across Europe due to weather-related incidents caused by Storm Goretti, including a man in Cornwall who was killed when a tree fell onto his caravan. The storm caused widespread power outages, with nearly 100,000 homes in France and hundreds of thousands in the UK losing electricity. The Independent highlights the storm's record gusts of up to 99 mph in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall, with emergency alerts issued and significant travel disruptions across the UK, France, and Germany. Both sources emphasize the storm's multi-hazard nature, with warnings for snow, ice, wind, and rain, and note the ongoing challenges for emergency services and infrastructure. The coverage underscores the storm's severity and the need for improved resilience, with France and the UK mobilizing resources to manage the crisis.
How we got here
Storm Goretti, named by French meteorologists, is the first major storm of 2026, bringing hurricane-force winds, heavy snow, and ice across Europe. It followed a pattern of increasingly severe weather events linked to climate variability, with the UK and France experiencing their most intense storms in recent years. Authorities issued multiple warnings, and infrastructure has been heavily impacted, highlighting ongoing vulnerabilities to extreme weather.
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