The palace, in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, is closing the the light trial around its landscaped gardens, the Christmas market, and the ice rink that it introduced for the first time last week. Organisers are "monitoring the forecast" for Sunday and have made no further announcement as yet.

A town's official Christmas lights switch-on has been cancelled due to the expected arrival of Storm Bert. Redcar's Illumination Parade was set to take place on Sunday but has been scrapped due to the impending bad weather.

A number of Christmas events have been cancelled today after Storm Bert hit the south. Storm Bert has hit the south today (November 23), with yellow wind and rain warnings in place. Blenheim Palace has cancelled its Christmas events due to “adverse weather conditions”.

Yellow weather warnings for wind and rain are in place as Storm Bert hits the West of England. During a Christmas lights switch-on at the Cheltenham Brewery, cladding from the nearby Premier Inn blew down and landed on a car. Reuben Spence, who was at the scene, said people had been in the car at the time and fire crews were at the scene.

Christmas light switch-on events have been postponed or scaled back as Storm Bert is expected to strike later. Torrential rain is expected and wind gusts of 70mph have been predicted. The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for across the country.