BRITAIN'S second-largest airport was plunged into darkness last night as Storm Franklin brought further chaos to transport networks across the county.

Power to the runway lights at Gatwick was cut around 6.30pm as gale-force winds continue to batter Sussex.

It comes just days Storm Eunice, whose 90mph winds left thousands without power, decimating rail services and major roads.

No operational impact was caused by the outage that lasted around 15 minutes but several flights were cancelled due to the severe weather.

A spokesman said: "This happened at around 6.30pm last night and lasted around 15mins.

"It was caused by a power dip on the network due to the weather.

"There was no operational impact."

Storm Franklin has sparked evacuations in parts of the UK and caused widespread rush-hour travel disruption, with train operators warning customers not to travel amid gale-force winds and flooding.

A yellow wind warning that covers England, Wales and south-western Scotland is in place until 1pm, while an amber warning for Northern Ireland expired at 7am.

Storm Franklin’s highest gust of 87mph was recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight on Sunday evening, followed by current gusts of 79mph on a mountaintop in Wales.

“It’s still pretty strong out there and it will continue to be strong over the next few hours,” Mr Dewhurst told the PA news agency.

National Rail told people “do not travel” as it said the first services on most routes were cancelled, while there is a reduced timetable for Monday, alternative travel is unavailable and further disruption is expected.

South Western Railway said Network Rail had cleared more than 50 trees from its network since Friday, but more heavy rain and strong winds on Sunday night caused “even more trees to block the lines and further damage to stations and infrastructure”.

It added: “With the wind direction expected to change it is very likely that more trees will come down during Storm Franklin, having been weakened over the last two days.”