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As Goretti defeats the gritters, Britain counts the cost and braces for more
The Observer
|January 11, 2026
Even the gritters struggled to cope in the wake of Storm Goretti.
One of Devon county council's yellow lorries overturned as it was tackling an icy Dartmoor road yesterday morning.The truck was one of many casualties of Goretti's hurricane-force winds along the Cornish coast and snow dumps up to 27cm deep across Wales and Scotland. Power lines were felled, trains cancelled and football games postponed after the extreme weather. In Mawgan in Cornwall, a man in his 50s died after a tree toppled on to his caravan.
More is on the way, the Met Office warned. Although Goretti dwindled as it moved northwards, another weather system forming over the Atlantic is due to arrive today.
Forecasters expect snowfall in northeastern Scotland and England, up to 20cm deep on higher ground, while the rest of the country is bracing for heavy rainfall and the possibility of flooding caused by a combination of melting snow and rain.
This story is from the January 11, 2026 edition of The Observer.
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