Thursday notes

Fairly bright morning but with some beefy showers about. Feeling quite muggy out and about. Down in England, the waters in the River Thames appear to be past their highest level, leaving flooding behind in Oxford and other towns and cities downstream. The water in the River Severn is now dropping by a foot (30 cms) a day, and there is hope that the water treatment works at Tewkesbury can now be pumped out and possibly restarted in the near future. 350,000 people remain without a mains water supply.

A German tourist, Sara Lodhi, is missing from her holiday cottage on Vatersay, adjacent to Barra (120 miles south of here). The 30-year old had rented a self-catering cottage. Personal belongings were found in it, although the lady herself has not been seen for a week.

In the same area, a waterspout / tornado caused minor damage on Vatersay and Barra at around 6pm last night. A small funnel was seen strafing across eastern Vatersay then crossing the narrows between the two islands before making landfall around Castlebay. It caused minor damage.