an avalanche in edinburgh

Tue, Dec 7, 2010

Hot on the heels of an avalanche warning for Arthur’s Seat and an actual avalanche in Edinburgh city centre, SAIS have issued an avalanche warning for, Edinburgh! As for here, it’s been snowing all night and a couple of inches of very dry new snow is making it very quiet. It’s so dry that when I ran into the garden to drag Mr. Vic the cat back in (he was chasing the birds trying to get some scraps), my socks weren’t even wet!

The sea loch has frozen over a bit and it’s snowed on top of the ice so it’s all looking rather arctic this morning.

Dawn and her pals are stuck in Glasgow just now and are trying to break out again this morning. Luckily they managed to get into a hotel last night and not get stuck on the roads, as many did overnight. With it going down to -11 and being difficult to keep your car heater on while the car in front’s exhaust is reeking, not to mention running low on fuel, I thought the police were out of their depth in telling people to stay in their cars and not to make the short journey on foot to the nearby services. I think that’s just downright irresponsible. Watching Newsnight Scotland last night it was clear the Scottish government were caught on the hop by the weather, which they claimed hadn’t been forecast. I distinctly remember relaxing with a cup of tea and watching the forecast on the BBC announce heavy snow in Glasgow. Not to mention my mother in law saying “I told her to get out of there last night, before the snow came”. Perhaps the SNP should phone my mother in law in future!

I had to laugh though. With hundreds of people trapped on the motorways, the police sending them back to their ice box cars and heavy snow falling from a leaden sky, the Scottish Parliament met for an hour or so in an emergency huddle, emerging with the news that all was under control and they’d have the motorways cleared within the hour and the traffic moving again. It was all too Monty Python and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Those poor folk trapped on the motorways all night won’t be laughing though.

You know, it’s quite embarrassing to watch your transport minister repeatedly say the word “unforecast” over and over and over and over…