2015 announced itself on the 1 January with the first of two weeks of storms. Highest gust registered as 50mph which was something of a record in itself. The next two weeks continued in the same vein with Atlantic storm after Atlantic storm. However the dire warnings were building up for the 8/9th January with weather amateurs and professionals alike watching carefully.
The forecast winds were to arrive during the evening and continue overnight. Around 9.30 on the 8th January we could hear the wind rising. As the evening went on, the noise was unbelievable. Kept a close eye on the Shulista weather station as they are much more exposed than we are here. Just before midnight and also just after midnight the weather station here registered a gust of 63.3mph. In Shulista the record was 109.6mph just before his station went off line. This will forever be the baseline for any other storm. The house shook and shuddered; the glass flexed; the wind blew down the chimney and stones from the croft were whipped against the patio doors and the windows. The electricity flickered a few times but remained on as did the internet. In the early hours (little sleep was had that night) a nasty splintering sound was heard but going outside to check out what had made it was impossible.
The next morning a damage report saw one windowsill ripped off (and quickly repaired) One cold frame deposited in bits further down the croft; the lid of the recently completed compost bin ripped off (retrieved and repaired) and bird feeders scattered and broken. The roof, walls and expanses of glass all intact with no damage to report as was our sturdy shed.
Lost power on the afternoon of the 9th and tested the wood burner's capabilities to discover that we can boil water or heat food and we do keep warm and toasty. The torches worked well too and candlelight is lovely. The bridge was closed, ferries cancelled and the island was effectively locked down. The SSE workers repaired the power lines in atrocious conditions and although we has some intermittent faults over the next few days, most had power restored within 12 hours.
So we survived and learnt a few things about the house and our own resilience. I would be quite happy never to experience an event like this again but.... we live on the western isles and can expect many such storms in the future. The vast majority of people we spoke to said that the last time winds had been so high was more than 10 years ago. Til 2025 then. Of course, there's always one or two who say it was much worse in whatever year it was too.
So January, as always, was a dry one for us. I see that many are now taking the same route. February 1st is on a Sunday so the weekend "rules" will be extended for that one. It's a good feeling and I'm sure it does the system good.
Like many in Britain, we can be obsessed with the weather and have had fun setting up and reporting from the weather station on the croft. After the December storm, the weather station has been "tethered" by three huge logs and it has developed a definite list off the vertical. Living here, the weather plays such an important part of what is possible on a daily basis. Food deliveries, the post, leaving the island, travel generally plus the things most of us take for granted like internet and power. The differences in weather in just a few miles on the island can bemuse and confuse but that's part of what makes it so enjoyable.
So life goes on; work on the croft continues when we can get out there safely and without sinking in inches of mud. Many of the trees have splintered and branches fallen but none of the big ones have blown down. I have searched all files but there are no photos from the first three weeks of January as it was simply too dreich / dangerous / wild to get out.
The storms that continued into the following week delivered snow and blizzards so I have attached another short video that shows the force of the snow and the newly built compost bins, including the one that lost its lid.
Next updates will include an "interesting" city break in Inverness and the best beginning to a February that I can remember for some years. Plus plenty of gorgeous images of an island awakening and Scotland at its winter's best.
No comments:
Post a Comment