Gale force winds, heavy rain, flash floods, blocked roads and cloudbursts of hailstones caused transport chaos as the West returned to work.

Atrocious conditions greeted the hundreds of thousands of workers and schoolchildren on the first day back after the Christmas and new year holidays yesterday, with emergency services stretched by fallen trees, flooding and car crashes.

The storm blew in during the early hours of yesterday morning and continued through lunchtime with heavy and prolonged rain. Weather forecasters warned conditions this week are unlikely to get any better – another storm will blow in later today.

Commuters and school-run parents awoke to find the biggest problem was fallen trees, with roads blocked from the Cotswolds through Wiltshire to Dorset and Somerset.

In Shepton Mallet a huge limb of a tree fell across the A361 at Charlton Road outside the Charlton House Spa Hotel. It brought down power cables from a nearby telegraph pole as it crashed to the ground, and several properties were left without power, blocking the road until 3pm.

But despite 2ft of flooding an afternoon wedding at the Spa Hotel was able to go ahead. The happy couple and their party were carefully escorted in – in their own vehicles – through the draining waters and under fire brigade escort.

Shepton’s chief fire officer Graham Brown said although they knew bad weather had been forecast – they had been given information that it would be more centralised over Cornwall and Devon.

The M5 was partially blocked by an accident caused by the strong winds. A Co-op lorry, pictured on our front page, had its roof ripped off by a gust of wind as it drove northbound between Highbridge and Burnham.

The winds also led to the closure of the M48 Severn Bridge. Flooding hit homes in Winsford, Dulverton and Shepton Mallet, as well as other locations across the region.

Drivers in Bristol also experienced travel havoc after strong winds and rain brought down trees and caused flooding.

And in Somerset, one woman had a lucky escape when she drove into a normally shallow ford across School Lane in Chew Stoke, and found her car being swept away by a 2ft-high torrent of water.

The car, a Vauxhall Nova, was swept into a tree and the woman in her 40s was left trapped in her vehicle. Luckily, two members of staff from the Environment Agency were in the area at the time trying to clear blockages to reduce the risk of flooding.

Dave White and Andy Moore put on lifejackets, hooked up a line and waded into the water. Mr White then pulled her through the water to safety, and within minutes, the car was swept away 40 yards downstream before ending up lodged between two trees.

The woman, who couldn’t swim, was treated for shock at the scene. “It was pure chance that we drove past the ford at the exact time the woman driver was getting into difficulty,” said Mr White.

The wind blew down a tree which partially fell on to a shopping centre roof in Corsham, Wiltshire, while Dorset fire and rescue service described the morning as one of its busiest. Crews freed a driver whose HGV had blown over and trapped him on the A37 west of Charminster.

Click here to see our special photo gallery of the damage caused by yesterday's severe weather in Somerset.

Further severe weather is forecast to hit Somerset this evening. To read more, click here.