THE region’s weather is set to settle over the weekend after gale-force winds battered Suffolk and Essex last night.

Trees were sent crashing near Boxford, near Sudbury, and Nacton and Newbourne, near Ipswich, and people left without power following the high winds last night.

But experts have predicted the region’s weather will be less volatile this weekend and into next week.

“It’s going to be much more settled this weekend,” said Joe Osborne, of Norwich-based Weatherquest. “There’s going to be nothing like the weather we saw last week.

“It was the first really strong winds we’ve had post summer.

“You’d expect to see weather like this up to ten times a year.”

He confirmed the strongest winds were recorded at Wattisham on Thursday, which saw gusts of up to 50mph.

It is understood there were a number of power cuts overnight on Thursday.

But UK Power Networks were unable to confirm how many homes were affected.

Nationwide, Britain woke up to scenes of destruction this morning after more than 24 hours of severe winds and torrential rain ripped across the country.

A woman was impaled on a branch when a falling tree hit her car as storm-force blasts made it too dangerous for planes to land at one airport, felling trees and power cables and causing bridge closures.

As gusts reached 100mph, aircraft had to be diverted from Leeds-Bradford airport where high winds caused havoc for some incoming flights.

One plane from Dublin had to switch to Liverpool after making three unsuccessful attempts to land at Leeds-Bradford last night, with several other domestic flights being forced to fly on to Manchester.

Worst-hit overnight were north-west England, Yorkshire and the Humber.

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