ON MIDSUMMER'S day in June you might expect blazing sunshine and packed beaches.

Only ten days ago it was a scorching 31C.

So the last thing Margaret Rusling forecast was for gale-force winds to send a tree crashing down on top of her.

The retired Hampshire teacher had a miraculous escape when 45mph gusts sent a 25ft tree crashing down on to her car.

She was pinned in the driver's seat of her Peugeot 106 for half an hour yesterday with the large sycamore was just inches away from her head.

On hearing a loud bang and a scream, friends Harry and Judy Weaver came running out of their home in The Chestnuts, Locks Heath, to see Mrs Rusling trapped.

As Mrs Weaver frantically dialled 999, Mr Weaver checked to see she was okay.

Carpenters working on a nearby building site rushed to the rescue, using pieces of wood to prop the tree up to ensure it did not compress the car further.

Emergency services were quickly on the scene at midday and as firefighters and the nearby workmen cleared the road, paramedics gave Mrs Rusling, 65, the all-clear.

Grandmother Mrs Rusling, of Satchell Lane, Hamble, said: "I'm alive and glad to be here.

"All I remember is the roof collapsing and the tree came behind my head - the main body of the trunk - and I screamed.

"I was in the driver's seat and I was so frightened so I slid over to the passenger seat but I could not get out.

"I was stuck in there for about half an hour. The workmen came and got me out and the emergency services were there instantly. They were first class. I was impressed."

Yesterday saw temperatures plummet to 15C as a deep depression moved across the country, bringing with it high winds and rain.

Mrs Rusling, had just dropped off a friend at her home in The Chestnuts after a ceramics class when the unseasonable gusts blew the hefty tree over.

Mrs Weaver said: "I heard a bang and though 'Oh no!'

"It was a bit of a panic."

Carpenters Andy Cambridge and Mark Rutter, who had been working at the nearby Keeble Homes development, were alerted by a loud bang.

Mr Rutter, 40, from Shirley, said: "We heard a big crash. I looked round and saw the tree across the car.

"There was a branch stopping the door opening. We put bits of four-by-two under to prop the tree up. We got a saw and cut the branch off as some of the other guys supported the tree."

A Met Office spokesman said the bad weather would be replaced by sunshine this weekend with temperatures of 21C to 24C.