For those with an eye on the weather, the wind has just started to pick up out here in the Hebrides but not really to the levels forecast - gusty, but not stormy (yet) and the birds are still endeavouring to hang onto the hanging feeders. Lots of boats taking shelter in the bay last night and all bar one of the ferry services have been cancelled for the day. I did remember to tighten the tie-down chain shackles on the shed yesterday. Stay safe everyone.
I think we'll be cancelling tonights running club. Too many trees along the access road and running routes.
Central belt here, nowt more than a wet windy day so far, hoping it stays that way 🤞
I'm in Mull on holiday blowing a hoolie in Lochbuie no telly will just have to sit around eating drinking and reading books till it's wine time. Life is hard 😀
I think there might be a few campers, or hirers of big flat sided campervans having a sphincter clenching moment or two on the NC500 this lunchtime. We are forecast gusts up to 67kts here. We'll see.
An aborist I met yesterday said it's the worst time of year for a storm if you are a tree - with leaves heavy and very much still strongly attached. Nature is apparently pretty good at 'designing' leaf cover that self-sheds in extreme weather in spring and autumn - but unseasonal summer storms not so much. Oh, for the Hebridians - trees are these odd things we have that grow in the ground above knee high, with leaves in them - I know, crazy concept 😏 .
it's the worst time of year for a storm if you are a tree
I expect my lawn will be covered in apples and pears by tomorrow morning. Shame too - it was looking like a bumper year.
Central belt here, nowt more than a wet windy day so far, hoping it stays that way 🤞
Same here - so far. Sounds worse than it is from inside without a view out (without standing up in my home office to see out the skylight), the neighbours trees across the road are noisy AF being in full leaf.
Glad this wasn't last week when I was camped at Glenbrittle on Skye. Big family tent wouldn't've held up great! Doubt there'll be many remaining on the campsite today.
Spoke too soon - 40mph+ winds now arrived, shredding leaves and branches off trees and spindrift whipped off the sea - I can see waves breaking on the mainland shore 5km away.
Passed a guy doing london-edinburgh-london heading up a borders back road into the wind definitely questioning his life choices.
If he thinks this is bad wait until he finds out dalkeith is not actually Edinburgh.
A one day event,so hope the (mini) heatwave returns now that the garden has been watered 😉 🙃
A friend has been cycle camping in the Hebrides, managed to get an "expensive solid roof" overhead yesterday. Not sure if their ferry tomorrow will be running.
LEL riders still being told to proceed, if necessary they will be held at controls and failure to follow instructions will be a disqualification.
I was supposed to be on the train down to manchester but everything is cancelled.
Just had to do an emergency clearance of every plant pot in the garden! Trees behind us are taking a pounding because of the full foliage and it's a couple of hours before winds are forecast to peak here!
Central belt here, nowt more than a wet windy day so far, hoping it stays that way
it's calmed down now a bit, but given I'm just the other side of a small hill from you, we get very different weather but you are much more sheltered on your side
Aberdeen here. Quite windy, but I don't think Amber level. Postie just turned up in shorts and t-shirt as usual.
Mrs 100th is volunteering on lel next three days, just taken her big hivis police waterproof out. It's warm but horrible out there.
Very windy here in Rosemarkie, arrived early to the campsite after following advice. Parked in the arrivals bay and then got moved on, because, rules are rules. I don’t know why people work in hospitality if they can’t even raise a smile!
Anyway parked in a car park watching the waves getting bigger and planes coming into Inverness, all made it so far apart from one that had to abort and come round again. Watching through binoculars it looks “exciting”!
Aberdeen here. Quite windy, but I don't think Amber level. Postie just turned up in shorts and t-shirt as usual.
Surely a postman just turning up is a bit unusual isn't it. We only get mail if there happens to also be a parcel that needs to be delivered too - then we get anything important we should have known about over the last 2-3 weeks 🙂
I think we're just off the bottom of the 'Amber' warning area, but watching with interest - we've just had our house re-roofed after damage inflicted in the January storm, but, crucially, haven't paid for it yet 🙂
not much sign here in norn iron, just a tad breezy so far this morning, local weather station reports max gust of 30 mph @ 09:35.
Aberdeen here. Quite windy, but I don't think Amber level. Postie just turned up in shorts and t-shirt as usual.
Surely a postman just turning up is a bit unusual isn't it. We only get mail if there happens to also be a parcel that needs to be delivered too - then we get anything important we should have known about over the last 2-3 weeks 🙂
I think we're just off the bottom of the 'Amber' warning area, but watching with interest - we've just had our house re-roofed after damage inflicted in the January storm, but, crucially, haven't paid for it yet 🙂
City centre so RM are quite reliable and are usually here 3 or 4 days a week (between us and the nextdoor neighbour).
Hope your roof survives!
Got a bit breezy in Stirling area about half 10 for about 1 hour. I didn't think it was bad, but I've lost the gazebo roof - completely ripped, so there must have been decent gusts.
Calmed down again and sun is out, but I won't be sitting under the gazebo for a while!
BBC and Met both Forecast 60 to 65mph max gusts, what we've actually had is a max 48/49mph gust.
Heavy squalls here in S. Manchester.
I was watching a live stream of Manchester Airport which had a moment where you couldn't see a thing. There's been a few go-arounds already.
That blob of weather is now directly over mine and it's torrential!
One and off rain in my part of South Manch. Had to pop out at lunch in the car and the rain was a little heavy at times, but that's it.
Yep, it's coming in fits and starts.
After 5 minutes of torrential rain, it's now quiet again.
Just lost two trees, one fell across the road. With the help of a local tree surgeon and his bigger saw we've got it cleared. It's pretty wild right now.
12.30 it arrived here in Rosemarkie, proper wind and rain. We were allowed on early and I think the wardens were quite pleased as their awning and contents blew away! I helped sort them out and then used my strops and shackles, a picnic bench and some blocks to secure the other wardens awning - they’re away.
Very unprepared for a campsite in such an exposed place, very windy, hard to stand up windy now with rain.
South Lanarkshire, calming down a bit and warm sunshine again now. Just been out with dog, a load of tree debris everywhere.
West coast of Sweden is getting warnings of upcoming high winds, with gusts up to 24m/s (48-ish kts). We (east coast) might get to see some of that, but nowhere near as bad. I think the latest prediction is about 10-12m/s, which is manageable.
75mph gusts reported on Tiree and camper vans being blown over on Skye. A few 50mph+ gusts here, quite a few trees down/roads blocked here and some power outages, but that's just regular island weather.
Drove up deeside. Crossed into don side and over the lecht to Aviemore. Saw nothing unusual. Seems very calm here and looking at the door bell cam doesn't look too chaotic back home either.
Did see alot of roof tents out and about though. Be a fun night in one of those
Oh and an old land cruiser on the lecht road battling to stay on the road with a pair of bikes mounted vertically on a roof rack. He didn't look to be having much fun in the gusts
Postie just turned up in shorts and t-shirt as usual.
Vehicles seem to be struggling on bealach na ba.
Pretty mad rain
Per Winterhighland
A new summer record wind speed on CairnGorm with the summit AWS recording 134mph in the past hour.
Two wheelie bins down ! Send air sea rescue.
I've spent much of the day shuffling between Stirling and Forth Valley Royal. Some vicious gusts, lots of branches down, mad rain at times.
As well as 'gorm new windspeed, apparently Skye and Bealach na Ba/Applecross have campervans on thier sides. Like a good few... They drive among us people.
It's certainly been a wild one.
Down here in Nottingham it is noticeably blowy and trees are bending more than looks comfortable.
off out with tubs to collect blackberries now, I may be some time..
tubs?
Or Tubs?
My insides are all wrong....
Nowt much happening here in kirkcudbright, we are quite sheltered from the worst of it due to the wind direction, took a wee 5 min drive to the Dhoon bay
Been pretty wild here in Wester Ross. Lots of tress down on roads, lots of debris flying around. Didn't take long to decide that doing a postie round today was a bad idea. Back home with no power now.
London-edinburgh-london riders being turned back from where they are now. Only two riders north of hawick and 26 here.
Offshore at the moment and had gusts of 95 knots a few hours back. not sure ill be venturing outside this shift.
Nice evening here now, roads are dry, not much wind.
No power here. Aim is to restore in 24hrs apparently. Another tree down. Over the boat and greenhouse this time....will assess with beer at the ready to drown tears in the morning. Still plenty blowy. Finding my own joke about the Hebridians not knowing what a tree is further up the thread slightly less funny now.
One corner lifted. But other than that solid as a rock in North Berwick.
Other tents were very much not so successful
Indeed it was not surprising to see some tents and awnings being shredded / blown away with everyones stuff still inside. Surely with that forecast on the west coast of Scotland you take the tent/awning down first thing in the morning, pop it all in the car/caravan, and then sit in a cafe or hotel for the day?
Indeed it was not surprising to see some tents and awnings being shredded / blown away with everyones stuff still inside. Surely with that forecast on the west coast of Scotland you take the tent/awning down first thing in the morning, pop it all in the car/caravan, and then sit in a cafe or hotel for the day?
Too much common sense there Matt. I'm glad we had our week camping on Skye last week and not this week. It'd have been a serious PITA to have to pack everything up given the ridiculous size of the tent we had and the scarcity of 'solid' alternative accommodation, but we would've if we'd been there.
Not much shelter here:
the scarcity of 'solid' alternative accommodation
A problem for many it seems. You've booked into a site, you've to check out by 10am, or the ferry you've booked is cancelled and there are no sheltered spaces anywhere. Pull up in a layby or car park and you're confronted by No Overnight Parking/No Campervan signs and hostile locals.
Got my first van load of hardwood from the storm for the fire today. Thanks Floris!
Indeed it was not surprising to see some tents and awnings being shredded / blown away with everyones stuff still inside. Surely with that forecast on the west coast of Scotland you take the tent/awning down first thing in the morning, pop it all in the car/caravan, and then sit in a cafe or hotel for the day?
We were very shelter from south and west and a little bit, thee north.
We had spent the sunday night and woke up in the morning fully undisturbed.
I stood in thenmiddle of the site and it was way to windy for a tent but we decided to risk it because there was no wind by the trees.
I did pop up later really when it really go going.
I had to peg someones tent.
The only people who actually suffered were the people who clearly didn't know how to put up a tent. "Peg in each corner, guylines optional, don't bother tensioning anything"
One massive frame completely failed. And a couple of small ones flattened themselves.
The £2,200 quid inflatable mega homes was absolutely rock solid. That was seriously impressive.
https://www.attwoolls.co.uk/vango-ventanas-tc-air-650xl-airbeam-tent
Actually all the inflatable ones seemed to do extremely well.
Fortunately, the worst casualties here were trees and poly tunnels - a few folk got stranded overnight due to ferry cancellations. A mate who is lifeboat crew from Tobermory was doing relief in Mallaig and was on a shout for 7.5 hours in the thick of it assisting a stricken yacht - they ate a lot of Pot Noodle!
the scarcity of 'solid' alternative accommodation
A problem for many it seems. You've booked into a site, you've to check out by 10am, or the ferry you've booked is cancelled and there are no sheltered spaces anywhere. Pull up in a layby or car park and you're confronted by No Overnight Parking/No Campervan signs and hostile locals.
I doubt that any camper temporarily hiding from the weather awaiting a cancelled ferry was facing hostility from the locals. Equally any time I've been on an island and the ferry has been off most accomodation providers have been quite flexible because usually if you can't get out, the next load of holiday makers also can't get in.
I saw one report of a village hall being used by a campsite to accommodate people - presumably that is a site who (together with their transient residents) create a positive impact on the local community rather than resentment for its existence! It might require a bit of dunkirk spirit though!
Actually all the inflatable ones seemed to do extremely well.
We were on the Llyn last year and it was pretty windy nearly all the time although it stopped short of being an actual storm. People who had pitched there tents on top of the cliff for the views got battered constantly and tents failed due to attrition. I thought the inflatables would do well because the poles couldn't break, but some were just blowing flat all the time before springing back up like a bouncy castle in a gale.
Walking around our (wooded) university site this lunch time and it is amazing the amount of leaves and branches down. Very few full trees down however, which surprises me.
Down here in Cardiff there's a big tree down across the path in our local woods. Must have been diseased as it wasn't *that* windy, but still it's a big un.
