Gales (1)

Severe weather is part of life in the islands. Yesterday (June 20th) was pretty atrocious; today (21st) it has shifted south, fortunately. Back in January 2006, we had a week of gales. I'll copy the entries from the Lighthouse Blog from that time, to give you a flavour.

Today, 9 January, is another red letter day for weather watchers in the Western Isles. A severe gale is howling through Stornoway as I type (midday), with gusts approaching force 11. There is heavy rain, the ferry didn't sail at 7.15 this morning and all manner of vessel is coming into port for shelter. What I do on a day like that is submit frequent reports on Metcheck, using data from the Met Office and my own eyes. The webcam showed this image just now:

Unfortunately, it does not adequately show the crests on the waves in the Newton basin.
Mind you, it could be worse. Just now I found this stunning image of Hurricane Emily, which battered the Caribbean in the summer of 2005, taken from space.

What annoys me at a time like this is the lack of interest from south of the border. Shortly after Christmas, there was a bit of snow in southern England. Hundreds of people on the Internet messageboards (like Metcheck) yapping on about the time "their" snow would appear. The moment it did appear, there were howls of despair over the disruption it caused. Similarly with the gales. Yep, the 1987 hurricane in southern England was severe. But so was the one in January 2005 in the Western Isles. It barely got a mention on the national news bulletins, even though 5 people lost their lives and there was a lot of damage.
OK, end of wail. I'll continue to enjoy the wild weather for now.