The highest wind speed officially recorded at the peak of Storm Eunice in Suffolk was 71mph – but forecasters believe the true figure could have been higher.

Weatherquest, which operates stations throughout East Anglia, said the fastest gusts were recorded at a station at Wattisham at about 3.15pm on Friday.

However, unofficial recordings of 80mph in Aldeburgh and 77mph at Southwold have also been reported.

Fred Best, meteorologist at Weatherquest, said it was "entirely plausible" that winds closer to 80mph would have been recorded if the stations were not so spread out.

He said: "It has been windy all day. A lot of the stations were seeing maximums of 70mph.

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"The weather stations are fairly sparse, so there could have been higher speeds between them. It's quite possible that some isolated places in Suffolk could have hit 80mph. It's entirely plausible.

"This has been a widely strong wind event. We're still waiting for the exact stats, but it's up there.

"Storm Dennis was probably the last time we had winds this strong, but this storm was more widespread."