08/02/2014 BBC Wales Today

Good evening. Wales has been the BBC News channel. We

Good evening. Wales has been battered by gale force winds. Around

26,000 homes are still cut off tonight in South, mid and West

Wales. Once again, coastlines around Wales, hit by huge waves. I wouldn't

have in bettering this area all afternoon. It has been so strong

here, people have been advised to keep a safe distance from the

seafront. Gusts of wind reached up to 80 mph. But that didn't stop

people coming to take in the views. Rougher than I thought it would be.

Even when you're standing in it, the force of it is quite powerful. It's

so unprecedented to get this top of whether for this long. Although you

see it on television, until you experience it safely, you don't

really appreciate how devastating it can be. Similar scenes in

Aberystwyth. Disruption, too, on our roads, and overturned lorry has

meant the M4 on both erections has been closed between junctions 41 and

42. The wind also caused around 15,000 homes in mid Wales to be

without power. Gales are expected to continue tonight, but things should

improve tomorrow. The future of three leisure sites in

Denbighshire remains in doubt this evening. Clwyd Leisure says it's

closing the Rhyl Sun Centre, the Nova Centre and the Indoor Bowls

Centre in Prestatyn, due to a lack of funding from Denbighshire

Council. More than 100 workers could lose their jobs. The council will

decide in the next few weeks whether they can be reopened. Wales have

suffered a huge setback in their quest to win three consecutive Six

Nations titles. They were comprehensively beaten by Ireland in

Dublin by 26-3. Warren Gatland says it's one of the worst performances

since he's been coach. Here's our sports reporter Ashleigh Crowter.

Wales arrived in Dublin with reasons to be confident. They hadn't lost an

away match in the 6-nation since 2011. But they were second best

since the start. Their line-out and scrum looked shaky. I'm forced

errors and needless penalties killed their momentum. Jonathan Sexton took

advantage with the boot, in a Masters class -- masterclass. He

pinned Wales into the corner and from the resulting line-out, Chris

Henry was driven over for a 13-0 half-time lead. Leigh Halfpenny got

Wales on the scoreboard with a penalty but his fifth cap was not

one to remember as Wales were hassled into more mistakes -- 50th

cap. With two minutes to go, Ireland completed the demolition as

replacement Paddy Jackson crossed to win the match 26-3. Probably one of

the worst performances since I have been involved. There are no excuses,

Ireland thoroughly outplayed us, they deserved to win, our

performance just wasn't good enough. This was not a performance of a side

on course for the title but as last year proved, one defeat doesn't

necessarily mean championship has gone. Swansea City are closing in on

victory against Cardiff City. With a quarter of an hour left, they are

leading 2-0. Routledge opened the scoring in the second half. The

Bluebirds came close to equalising moments later. Bellamy hit the bar,

but in the last few seconds, Nathan Dyer has scored a second full swing

too. -- for Swansea. Time for the weather.

We have seen some very unpleasant weather conditions across Wales and

I'm afraid the story stays the same tonight. Gale force winds and very

heavy rain. We have this amber warning the strong winds across the

south coast, just to reconditioned wherever you are. The West Coast and

Northwest are seeing strong winds as well. More in the way of rain

pushing in from the west tomorrow morning. A little drier in North

Wales, some of the showers are turning wintry on higher ground.

Monday will be a little drier but still windy. The next area of

low-pressure introduces further, very heavy rain and strong winds on

Tuesday. Good evening. Unfortunately I don't

have much good news in this forecast. There may be a brief

respite later tomorrow with the wind and the rain but it will not be long

enough and we have today's storm withers, pounding many coastlines in

the south and west, hence the Amber wind warning from the Met Office. It

is a windy day across the board and it is not just the wind