The UK is braced for an onslaught of strong winds and heavy rain after forecasters issued severe weather warnings for large swathes of the UK.
A yellow "be prepared" warning of relentless downpours was in place across parts of northwest Wales, northern England and southern Scotland from 8am on Wednesday morning to the early hours of Thursday, the Met Office said.
Deluges were also expected across the south and east of Northern Ireland on Wednesday morning and into the early afternoon.
Commuters were told to expect delays as flooding hit bus and train routes – with some homes also at risk from rising waters.
Winds speeding up to 70mph across England and Wales were set to add to problems for travellers as flights could be affected, the Met Office said.
Met Office spokesman Alex Burkill said: "We've got a number of warnings out in force — we're looking at some pretty heavy rain as we go through today and we're looking at 25 to 50mm quite widely and 100mm in some areas.
"There is a wind warning for the whole of England and Wales with the risk of gales and perhaps severe gales of up to 70mph in exposed areas.
"We might see some trees being blown down, some branches. It's going to be a very windy day."
A yellow snow warning was also in place on Thursday morning for parts of Scotland where two to five centimetres of snow was expected to settle on the ground "quite readily".
Up to 20cm of snow could settle over Scotland's hills and mountains, Mr Burkill said. "That's not exceptional for this time of year — but it is the first significant snowfall of the season so far," he added.
