Damage and power outages have been reported Friday as energy from a storm system that produced record snowfall along the Gulf Coast is bashing Western Europe with heavy precipitation and powerful wind gusts.

Weather alerts have been issued by local national weather services for Ireland and the United Kingdom as a powerful storm system works across the Northern Atlantic into western Europe. Forecasters expected peak wind gusts to reach 80-100 mph on Friday and into the early weekend.

A major winter storm slammed the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, blanketing parts of a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather with record-breaking snowfall.

It's something very weird and nuanced going on right now,’ says one expert about the potential reasons for the snow blanketing much of the southern U.S.

Weather forecasters and public agencies issued health and power loss warnings Tuesday as a “rare winter storm" gripped parts of the southern and eastern United States."A bitterly cold airmass will remain in place for much of the South and eastern U.