GALE force winds battered Britain, bringing down trees in Worcestershire as drivers are warned to take extra care with wintry showers on the way next week.

A tree was reported to have come down between the A449/Claines Lane at Claines near Worcester and the A4133 at Ombersley on Saturday, partially blocking the road.

A second tree came down on the B4090 Worcester Road, Droitwich. The fire service also issued warnings to motorists to slow down when driving as there may be a fallen tree around the next corner.

However, the worst of the weather was in Scotland where winds reached up to 113mph, leaving some homes without electricity since Friday.

In England a body has been recovered and searches continue for another man after two people were swept out to see in severe weather at Brighton beach.  The body of Freddie Reynolds who was swept out to sea as he tried to resuce his friend Dan Nicholls has been recovered. Searches for his friend resume today.

The Met Office has yellow 'be aware' weather alerts for snow and ice for all of Scotland, the North, the Midlands and Northern Ireland for snow and ice.

According to the Met Office it will be windy in Worcester tonight and the chance of heaby rain in places. There will be outbreaks of occasionally very heavy rain and strong winds on Monday morning. There is some snow possible across the hills on Tuesday in the region before clearing to sunshine. However, there will be more wintry showers on Thursday.

The gales were stirred up by an extra powerful jet stream triggered by plunging temperatures in the US hitting warmer air in the south.