Evening notes

As we move towards sunset, the news continues to be dominated by young Shannon Matthews, found, after being missing for 24 days, in Dewsbury. A picture is emerging of complicated family ties. Police are interviewing the young girl to piece together a sequence of events since February 19th.

In Albania, an armaments depot has exploded, leaving widespread devastation, death and injury behind. The Albanian army was disposing of old ammunitions, some dating back to the 1940s, when the blast occurred. This report on the BBC website has actual footage of the detonations as they happened.

I have spent the afternoon uploading images of ships, which have visited Stornoway over the past 6 months, to the shipspotting website. So far, I have put 85 pictures up. In comparison with other ports on the Scottish west coast, Stornoway cannot be described as bustling, making the appearance of strange boats quite an occasion. There is a meeting of shipspotters in Rotterdam next month, with an inevitable session of 4 hours on the water's edge, spotting ships.

I hope any J-landers in Atlanta, GA, were not affected by the storm last night which has left the city centre severely damaged. It appears to have been tornado-like in nature.

Talking of storms, I have no tropical cyclones whatsoever to report upon. The season in the southern oceans is moving towards its closure - which means the Northern Hemisphere hurricane season is nigh. Two months from now, in fact. Be prepared.