Gales leave trail of destruction
Gale force winds battered the region over the weekend, uprooting trees and damaging buildings.
Worst hit was Wolverhampton, where £100,000 of damage was caused to a recently finished mosque when its main minaret decoration was blown from the roof.
A 150-year-old lime tree also came crashing into the yard of a city church as winds reached 65 miles per hour at around 7pm on Saturday night.
Worshippers at Wolverhampton Mosque in Waterloo Road arrived to find the minaret at the top of a tower, which had only been put up three months ago, lying broken amid a twisted fence.
No-one was inside the mosque, which took 10 years to build, when the damage happened. Workers spent Saturday night breaking up the bricks of the wall to avoid any hazards to passers by.
The mosque's imam, who would only be named as Mr Raja, said: "It's made of glass reinforced plastic. There was no problem with the workmanship or the installation so it can only be down to the severity of the gust of wind."
In Wednesfield a tree fell narrowly missing St Thomas's Church, which has been in the centre of the village since the 1750s.
Tree surgeons from Wolverhampton City Council closed Church Street at its junction with High Street.
Roger Poole, the 70-year-old treasurer of the church said: "I was here when it happened. Fortunately it did not cause any damage to the fence. It was very dangerous because it fell across the road and someone could have been killed."
Laura Price, aged 21, who lives in High Street and works as a duty manager at Blockbuster Video, said: "We had customers saying they had had to turn around. It caused a few problems for a little while for drivers."
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue received a few reports of trees which had come down in various parts of the region.
In Kidderminster, firefighters were called to a flooded attic in an empty house in Worcester Road, West Hagley, at 8.36pm on Saturday night. High winds had caused sheeting on the roof, which was being repaired, to blow off.
Andy Bodenham, forecaster at the Met Office, said: "The strongest gust was 50 knots which is about 65 miles per hour. "Coupled with rain at the same time it could have been responsible for a bit of damage."
The Met Office said to expect showers tonight with sleet or possibly snow tomorrow night. Temperatures today were around 41F (5C), dropping to 33.8F (1C) tonight and 30F (-1C) tomorrow.
