Autumn is here, on the calendar. Cloud has moved in during the last hour, and although I had pulled the one curtain shut to keep the sun off the monitor, it is now open again. Grey, low clouds have drifted in off the sea.
Linda, over in Washington State is having rain, day in day out. The 8 hour time difference was borne out on Saturday, when I posted sunset pictures and she had yet to put her face on. Sorry, Linda.
Elsewhere, I'm waiting for David in Colorado to report the first snow of the winter season in the Rockies. I'm not expecting much down here - the previous three winters there was not snow until March.
Donna (who entitled her latest entry Holy Crap!) is getting ready for her hockey team to start the real games of the season, and I hope they do better than last year. She is also the one that kindly provided the graphics with this entry. Another sign of autumn is of course Halloween. Not a minute after astronomical summer had come to a close on September 22nd did we have Halloween popping up all over J-land. Och, why not, in fact. What I will object to (tongue-in-cheek) is any mentions of Christmas before 1st November. Please. I mean, the shops are brimming with Halloween stuff (not here, though), but on the 1st November, they'll be chucking all of that out, to replace it with Christmas articles, which will adorn the shelves for two months with jinglebells, santas .... (crashes noisily off chair).
Anyway, I'll quietly await the arrival of the first autumn gale - none imminent on the weathercharts at present. October can be like that. It is still hurricane season, and that will continue until the end of November. You'll have me going on about that if anything threatens land. Well, enough ramblings for now. Donna, again, thanks very much for the graphics.
A volcano that has lain dormant for more than a
century has erupted in the Red Sea. Jebel al-Tair lies on a major
faultline, separating Africa from the Indian Ocean and the Middle East.
The island had been in use as a military base since 1996. A major
search and rescue operation is on-going; the western part of the island
has collapsed. Nine people are missing, and the Canadian warship
Toronto is in the area to render assistance to the Yemeni authorities,
to whom the volcano belongs.
It brings to mind an eruption off Iceland in 1963, where a volcano erupted out of the ocean floor, giving birth to Surtsey Island. Although eroded by waves and weather, the island is there today, where there was nothing before.
October 1st, and the weather has taken a change. It's still dry, but there is a lot of low cloud about. Sun occasionally peeps through, otherwise a quiet morning. Sea is not as smooth as yesterday morning, though.
Lekima is still on its way northwest towards Hainan Island and Vietnam, but is not likely to be as strong as I warned yesterday - below typhoon strength.
Typhoon Lekima will strike north Vietnam on Wednesday, with winds of 85 mph and heavy rains. I have found a website for the Vietnamese weather service, but I don't speak Vietnamese. Nonetheless, if anybody does, here is the link. Vietnamese weatherservice The storm will make landfall on the coast near position 18 North 106 East, early on 4 October (that's Wednesday evening GMT).
I rear-ended a car this morning.
I tell you, I knew right then and there that it was going to be a REALLY bad day!
The driver got out of the other car, and wouldn't you know it! He was a
DWARF!!
He looked up at me and said "I am NOT Happy!"
So I said, "OK, then, which one ARE you?"
The day just deteriorated after that.
This morning started windless. Not long after I took the above series of 4 pictures, a gentle breeze picked up, creating ripples and dispersing the mirror-like aspect of the water. Enlarge the pictures to view to full effect.
Sunny morning, which started windless but a breeze has now picked up. The basin, across the road, was like a perfect mirror. Not any more. Temperatures have risen to 13C from an overnight low of 2C.
Not much to report on the hurricane front, with only a typhoon threatening Hainan Island and Vietnam. Two earthquakes occurred in the Pacific, one near Guam and the other off New Zealand. Neither resulted in damage or casualties.
A UN envoy has spoken to the Burmese opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi, much to my surprise. Same envoy also spoke to the country's military leaders.
Since I resumed my photography hobby in April 2005, I have taken 15 spools of old-fashioned film (totalling 400 pics or so) and 9,600 digital pictures. The counter on my digital camera suggests I have depressed the shutter 10,555 times since February 22nd, 2006.
I am clicking away quite merrily with the digital camera, because it doesn't cost me a thing to take pictures. The only cost appears when I transfer them onto CD-ROMs (which cost about £1 or $2 each) or if I have them printed. The latter is expensive, at 50p / $1 per print in the photographer's shop.
My pictures are dominated by clouds and general weather conditions. Other subjects are the general landscape in Lewis, if and when I get out and about and the Stornoway townscape, which is quite unique in its own right. No high-rise buildings. Another subject matter is boats. Being on the waterfront means that any boat that puts its nose round Arnish will make it into my album, unless it's the middle of the night.
The pictures I took through the day. The two pictures marked "Sea mammal rescue practice" include people in wetsuits practising how to deal with seals, dolphins, whales and other large marine creature that come ashore. On Tuesday, a whale was found dead at Garynahine (some 15 miles southwest of Stornoway), and back in May, two dolphins had to be euthanised at Lower Sandwick (just down the road from here). The Coastguard team is trained to handle that; any veterinary intervention naturally involves the local vet.
On the penultimate day of September, it was not too warm, but quite sunny. Visibility is fantastic, can see the Applecross Forest 60 miles away. By the way, a forest in Scotland means that there are mountains. Very few trees in this neck of the woods. The Applecross Forest rises to over 2,000 feet. No wind either, so I'm scratching a few midge bites. Sunset will be in about 40 minutes.
I am a bit surprised that since autumn started 6 days ago, everybody seems to be going bananas over Halloween. One brave soul even mentioned the X-word. Christmas. Erm, as I said, it's September 29th. Never mind.
Following my rant over daft comments, I was greeted this morning by a comment-to-be-moderated on the TC blog by some idiot wanting to sell me watches. His comment duly got rejected, and although I normally only get comments from a fellow hurricane watcher in Australia (Petar, he used to write the Syrophenikon blog on here), I've now restricted those that can comment to Blogger users.
It's a bright and sunny day, with the mercury at 13C / 55F at the moment, which is better than we've seen for some days. As Linda in Washington state correctly observed, we're at the latitude of southern Alaska here, 58N, but our climate is directed by the Gulf Stream, which comes straight from the warm Caribbean.
Regarding my last Call for Support, don't thank me - I asked for J-land to shine, and it did. I noticed 18 comments in June's blog, and I'm sure it won't stop there. Well done all!
The low tides at the moment have their impact - the ferries in these islands are disrupted. Any sailings near low tide time are cancelled or retimed. On a related note, the airfield on the island of Barra, 110 miles south of here, is on the beach. Planes can only land at low tide. Which left a guest on a previous occasion to sigh: "What a place. If the tide is out, the ferries can't sail, and if it's in, the planes can't fly!"
I would like to highlight June's Journey, written by a lady of 46, nearly 47, who appears very lonely indeed. Housebound with a disability, only able to move with a cane, and suffering with mental health problems like depression. Having written 4 entries, she has had zero comments in total. June hopes to find new contacts through her journal.
I have this guestbook, which appears in my sidebar and on a few webpages. All I get on it is c**p. Initially, there were some useful and constructive comments, but now it's all spam. Think I'll shut it off.
I'm generally fed up with Bravenet at any rate. Have moved my website to a different hosting provider, because Bravenet would only show the webpages with advertising over it.
On the subject of comments, I had some really appreciative comments [sarcasm alert] on some of my videos, hosted on-line. "I have more viewers than you". Wow, that is a pearl of wisdom and feedback if ever I read one. "My video of this is longer than yours". No it's not, it's a minute shorter.
Below compilation shows pictures from broadly identical locations at 7.30pm last night and at around 3pm this afternoon. High tide last night, and low tide this afternoon. The difference in waterlevel is 5 metres / 17 feet.
Several more cases of the animal disease bluetongue have surfaced across the UK, and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have formally declared this an outbreak. Bluetongue is different from foot and mouth, currently present in Surrey, in that it is transmitted by midges. Only a very cold winter will kill off the midges, but experiences in mainland Europe have shown that it is capable of surviving an average winter there.
Bluetongue does not affect humans, but is fatal in 70% of cases in sheep and leads to a 40% drop in milk production in affected cows. The economic impact is clear.
On the subject of agriculture, farmers and crofters in Shetland have called for a mercy cull of tens of thousands of lambs that can now not go to market or export because of the restrictions in place on account of the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey, 1,000 miles to the south. Normally, these animals would now go for slaughter or breeding elsewhere in the UK or indeed outside the country.
Cloudy but fairly bright, with occasional sunny intervals today. Temperatures still no great shakes, 11C again. Down south, they're breathing a sigh of relief as the mercury crosses the 60F boundary again in an upward movement.
Still horrified by events in Rangoon, but still nothing anybody can do about it. I'm waiting for movements out of New Delhi or Beijing, as I said a day or so ago. The UN can come and talk their heads off, but it's India and China that pull the strings in Burma.
A new edition of the Highway Code has been published, which hints that smoking behind the wheel could leave you in deep water. Lighting a cigarette distracts you from the road, and could even leave you with zero hands on the steeringwheel. A prosecution for driving without due care and attention could follow. Critics have said that the Highway Code treats drivers like small children. However, that is unfortunately the way some drivers do behave on the road.
I am currently compiling a Blogger blog with pictures from various villages in Lewis. Bearing in mind that there are about 100 settlements in the island, that should keep me going for a bit. It is called Heather Isle Views - one of the bynames of Lewis is Eilean nan Fhraoich, the Isle of Heather.
Things are moving fast, in spite of Lorenzo's snailpace progression into Mexico. The NHC is now expecting this system to become a hurricane before landfall. Bearing in mind the vagaries of Mother Nature (and this is one of her top ten tantrums), we could see a VERY nasty surprise north of Palma Sola on the Gulf coast. The NHC forgot to include the rainfall warning, so I sent off an urgent email to them. I don't normally get a reply, so I hope they pick it up.
From bulletin 600 on the Tropical Cyclones blog:
HAZARD SUMMARY
Maximum sustained winds are 70 mph, which will increase.
Rainfall totals over the Mexican state of Veracruz will be between 5 and 10 inches, with localised totals of 15 inches. Please
note that the rainfall warning is carried through from previous
advisories but is NOT present in the current NHC Public Advisory #10.
Have advised NHC.
Storm surge flooding of 2
to 4 feet above normal tide levels (beware of the current equinoctial
springtides!) can be expected with dangerous battering waves near and
to the north of the point of landfall.
Hurricane warning A
hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are likely within 24
hours and preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to
completion.
Mexico: Palma Sola to Cabo Rojo
Tropical storm warning A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are likely within 24 hours
Mexico: Palma Sola to Vera Cruz
Tropical storm watch A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours
Tonight at 8 o'clock, the tide reached an equinoctial high at 5.5 metres / 18 feet. It is also a perfectly calm evening, with no wind. The wind gauge near the Coast Guard Station was still, not often seen. The sun set at around 7.10, but I had enough light to take the above pictures between 7.30 and 7.45.
Bearing in mind that it was a nice day, I went for a stroll down the shore to Sandwick. I went as far as the graveyard, then turned back. 45 minutes was long enough. It was bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Temperatures a paltry 11C / 52C, but no reason for complaint.
Tropical storm Lorenzo is in the Gulf of Mexico, and heading for the coast between Cabo Rojo and La Cruz in the state of Veracruz. Winds are topping 60 mph, a bad force 11, but it's the rain that'll do the worst of the damage. The system has a forward motion that can you could keep pace with on foot - 4 mph. The result is that it is going to dump rain (up to 15 inches) and do so for an awfully long time.
Nothing else in the Atlantic immediately threatening land.
Autumn is not my favourite season, watching the evenings draw in, noticing the drop in temperatures (never too warm up here at any rate, although I'm not complaining). I like the autumn colours, but you have to be quick to see them. One gale, and all the coloured leaves are gone.
Autumn contains a black day on the historical calendar, November 9th. On that day, now 69 years ago, Hitler's thugs went on the rampage on the streets of Germany to destroy anything Jewish they could find. I can't even remember the pretext. That night has gone down in the history books as the Kristallnacht. You don't really need to know German to be able to translate that into the Night of Crystal. I stick to the literal translation in order to maximise the impact of the euphemism. In English, it is commonly referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, after the heaps of broken glass left on the pavements the next morning.
Today, the BBC publicised photographs taken at the Auschwitz / Birkenau concentration camp in present-day Poland, showing SS guards and officers having a high old time, in the middle of their industrial-scale mass murder. On one of the days that the pictures were taken, 150 prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, of whom 117 were summarily gassed. The images are put in the public domain to show that the people doing the gassing were ordinary folk - on the surface at any rate, and serve as a stark warning. Read this preliminary first.
I should warn, if warning is needed, that following this link will bring you to a page with images that will most likely offend.
Nice and sunny afternoon if a bit nippy. Am looking forward to a BIG high tide at 8 pm tonight, which should come in at 5.5 metres / 18 feet. Just as well it's a calm day, or otherwise some people here in Stornoway would have wet feet.
Not much happening on the tropical front, apart from a tropical depression east of Tuxpan in Mexico, which will be giving them a drop of rain - 5 to 15 inches to be precise - and a bit of wind, up to 55 mph when the thing comes ashore this weekend. I warned about some disturbances out in the Atlantic - well, nothing just yet.
Everybody is making a lot of bluster about the appalling situation in Birma (Myanmar), but until India and China stop backing up that regime, nothing much is going to change. The junta there have been in power for over 20 years, and backing from the regional powers has kept them there. It is dreadful that they are firing live ammunition at their own people, and unacceptable.
An interesting item on the news this morning about Øli Breckmann a senior politician from the Faroes (an island group midway between Scotland and Iceland), who called on the Highlands and Islands to emulate the Faroese model. The Faroes (the Sheep Islands), an archipelago of 18 islands, are an autonomous region of Denmark. They first voted for autonomy in 1946, but the result of that ballot were quickly swept under the carpet by the horrified establishment in Copenhagen. The Faroese speak their own language, which is a close cousin of Icelandic, and according to Mr Breckmann, it has been the language which has proven to be the cornerstone under their success. It is used in all aspects of daily life. The parallel with the Highlands and Islands is that Gaelic is spoken in the Western Isles (and that description stretches from Islay to Lewis) as well as in large swathes of the Scottish mainland. It should be noted that Orkney and Shetland do NOT have that link, as their heritage is more Scandinavian oriented. Mr Breckmann has suggested that the H&I use their cultural identity and difference from the rest of the UK to foster economic prosperity and a sense of regional pride.
Methinks this is a very astute and valuable observation of the situation that our area finds itself in. This part of Scotland is often compared to outlying areas of Scandinavia, with particularly local politicians looking towards the Lofoden archipelago in Norway as an example to follow. On the other hand, we have a Nationalist Scottish Government, trying to set Scotland apart from the rest of the UK. I wonder what their stance would be on a Highlands and Islands (the larger part of the Scottish landmass) on a Faroese footing.
This is the archive of entries of the Northern Trip blog, formerly hosted on AOL. It was kept from 8 October 2004 until 7 October 2008, after which blogging was resumed on Atlantic Lines.
Autumn contains a black day on the historical calendar, November 9th. On that day, now 69 years ago, Hitler's thugs went on the rampage on the streets of Germany to destroy anything Jewish they could find. I can't even remember the pretext. That night has gone down in the history books as the Kristallnacht. You don't really need to know German to be able to translate that into the Night of Crystal. I stick to the literal translation in order to maximise the impact of the euphemism. In English, it is commonly referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, after the heaps of broken glass left on the pavements the next morning. 
