Live blog: Storm Ciarán whips up gusts over 100 mph

A record-setting storm as Storm Ciarán brings devastating wind gusts of over 100 mph, as it whips through the English Channel.

Storm Ciarán explosively intensified through Wednesday night, with a pressure equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.

The system will continue to bring damaging, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain through today, albeit gradually easing from the south-west as it crawls eastwards.

Drone footage above captured storm damage in Le Conquet, in Brittany, NW France, by our weather reporter on the ground, Jonathan Petramala.

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have now removed their Major Incident status, though surface flooding and strewn wind-blown objects in the roads are still causing issues.

From earlier this morning, a second possible tornado report has come in, sighted at 6.40 am this morning in Lancing, West Sussex.

An unofficial gust of 97 mph was also recorded in Folkestone Harbour earlier, though the highest official gust in Kent was 78 mph at Langdon Bay.

In France, Ciarán is said to have been the strongest storm for Brittany since 1987. Several station records have been broken for peak gusts.

As result of the storm's devastating winds, a woman in Madrid and an unidentified person in Ghent have been killed, both by falling trees. There has also been at least one fatality in France. In the UK, a police officer is in hospital after a falling tree hit their car in Loddiswell, Devon.

New Forest District Council are encouraging people to not visit the coast, amidst Hordle Beach steps becoming detached due to cliff movement.

Train services are also still disrupted, despite the winds easing in the south-west, due to major flooding on the tracks.

Despite being largely sunny today, Newry in Ireland is also suffering damaging floods after the city's canal burst its banks. Business owners estimate it will cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair damage to their premises.

The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service say they have rescued multiple people trapped in vehicles in floodwater. Schools in Jersey will also remain closed on Friday 3rd, due to safety and recovery reasons.

Up to 267 flood warnings have been issued across England. The Port of Dover has reopened although some ferry providers are yet to resume.

Due to Storm Ciarán and strong winds affecting power supplies, South-East Water have stated that there are water supply issues in some areas.

While the winds are beginning the ease a little across south-west England as Ciarán pivots eastwards, they're beginning to ramp up along the south-east coast, particularly around Kent and Sussex.

The storm reached its peak during the early hours of Thursday morning, November 2nd. Along the northern coast of Brittany in France, wind gusts reached an astounding 129 mph.

Along the rest of the coasts winds widely exceeded 80 mph, and even inland, gusts were at hurricane-strength, breaking several wind records.

Across Northern France, over a million households were without power, and a church has also been damaged in Normandy.

A potential tornado was reported in Jersey on the Channel Islands around midnight, accompanied by golf ball sized hail. Significant damage has impacted the island as a result of the storm so far. Jersey Airport saw a peak gust of 93 mph.

Along the south coast of England, winds are gusting over 80 mph in spots, generating massive wave heights on the coast of Cornwall. 7000 properties are also without power here.

More than 300 schools have been closed in England, including 224 in Devon alone. A double-decker bus near Folkestone has also reportedly blown over.

The central pressure of the storm has so far fallen to around 950 hPa in places, just a fraction off of the all-time November low pressure record.