A Hercules airplane has been used in the emergency transfer

The harsh weather conditions meant the RAF had to be called in to help in a complex airlift to transfer a five-day-old boy in need of specialist care from Singleton Hospital in Swansea to Glasgow.

Two aircraft were used by the RAF to transfer the boy to hospital in Glasgow for urgent specialist treatment.

Ordinarily the baby would have taken to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London but they did not have enough room.

The baby, whose parents live in Bridgend, was born with pulmonary hyper-tension and has undergone heart lung bypass treatment.

An RAF rescue helicopter which would normally have been used in the medical transfer was unable to carry out the mission because of the weather conditions.

A tornado was seen off south Wales before the storms set in

Instead an RAF Tristar flew two doctors and a nurse from Glasgow to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire where they were transferred to a Hercules plane.

The Hercules then took off again for Cardiff from where the medical team transferred by road to Singleton Hospital, spending some hours stabilising the baby boy

They have now returning on the Hercules to Glasgow and the baby has been taken there.

Flight Lieutenant Roy Crane from RAF Kinloss in Scotland said: "It is an unusual situation to use two of our aircraft in this way, and equally unusual that we are not able to task one of our Rescue Sea King helicopter for the flight.

"But the urgency of the case requires exceptional measures to get the baby to hospital in Glasgow as quickly as possible."

The baby's parents are being flown separately to Scotland and are keen to be reunited with their son as soon as possible, said a spokesman for Singleton Hospital.

Coastguards in Swansea said wind speeds there reached 62 mph during the night.

Around 1,500 homes in north Pembrokeshire were without electricity for two hours, and the Cleddau Bridge in the south was closed to high-sided vehicles for three and a half-hours.

The A494 road between Bala and Dolgellau was also closed after a tree fell across the road just outside Llanuwchllyn near Bala.

The fallen tree was reported at around 0545 GMT on Tuesday.

The council has been called out to clear the tree and diversions are in place. Gales and rain had been predicted for much of Wales after a 2000 foot high tornado was seen off the south Wales coast on Sunday.

Speed restrictions

On Sunday, eyewitnesses near Barry in south Wales looked on in amazement as a 2,000 foot waterspsout appeared over the Bristol Channel.

It did not cause any damage and died out after 20 minutes.

Speed restrictions are in place across several bridges in Wales.

There was a 40 mph limit on the old Severn Bridge and a 50 mph limit on the second Severn crossing.

Both the Britannia Bridge in north Wales, and the Cleddau Bridge, have 20 mph restrictions.