Storm on eBothy Blog

storm 2

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Quite a storm today. Power’s been off most of the day. Not quite the 165mph recorded on Cairngorm but it was around 80 here. Got blown away getting the post! A couple of vids from down at the shore. Between 2 and 3pm all hell broke loose. Very violent wind indeed. Great stuff!

blasted on blaven

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Saturday morning dawned pretty wild, with horizontal rain, gale force winds and a terrible forecast. I also had that feeling of an impending cold you get at the back of your nose but I put that down to the vaccinations for a foreign trip. Two heps and a rabies all at the same time and the nurse had told me to take it easy for the next week. Not even mowing the grass and I might feel a bit feverish due to having four jabs in four limbs at the same time. Makes you glad you live in the UK! Anyway, with the slates rattling I took myself off to the smallest room taking my copy of Undiscovered Scotland with me. I was reading the account of the first ascent of Twisting Gully when a paragraph struck me:

“The concentration of all the nervous and bodily powers to one end had unified the personality and thrown the cold out”

winter storms on the way

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It’s going to be a wild Halloween, woOOoo! 100mph winds on the tops and snow. What a combination!

another storm on the way 2

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

“O mo chreach” as they say in these here parts (equivalent of OMG!). Saturday night is looking like time to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. From MWIS:

“Significant risk of extreme conditions setting in suddenly, with any mobility widely impossible”

Mean wind speed is going to be 60-90mph! That’s MEAN wind speed. The gusts will be far in excess of that. This illustrates the increased danger from the weather in winter. The mountain forecast is saying the wind will more or less appear from nowhere, after a calm day and making all movement on the hills virtually impossible. So make sure you don’t delay on the top. I was caught in similarly bad weather on Blaven last winter but it was only gusting 60-70 and that was pretty wild. That time, the wind literally came out of nowhere.

weather makes history on the omm

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In forty years, the OMM has never been cancelled, until yesterday, when the weather was just too much. Grough and the BBC have reports about the chaos. The weather here at sea level was wild enough so I can only imagine what it must have been like high up in the Lakes as the storm moved south, especially if you’re only equipped with lightweight gear. 120mph winds had abated somewhat to 90mph and burns were full to bursting but these folk know what they’re doing. Let’s hope they all get off ok. Up here is forecast for heavy snow above 650m and lightning. Reading about the OMM has put me in the mood for a short run round Leitir Fura.

a bit of wind and rain

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

So I went down to the co-op in Broadford for some grub for tomorrow’s bimble up the hill and I popped along to Camas Malaig on the road to Torrin. It’s a nice coastal walk from there to the clearance villages of Boreraig and Suisinish and I thought it would be interesting to see what the sea was doing. Forecasted winds in the Cuillin were 120mph today, with Violent Storm 11 in the Minch. Just a measly 80mph for the rest of us. It certainly felt like 50mph steady. I could barely see into the rain, it was hammering so heavy with the wind. Tomorrow, with heavy snow above 650m, high burn levels and the risk of lightning, it might be another book in bed day.

hurricanes in the hills

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Forecast for Saturday says it all. Think I’ll postpone that bimble up Blaven:

wild weather indeed

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I posted yesterday about the approaching storm and today it arrived in full force. The telly reported 88mm (3 inches) of rain down the road at Lusa and we’ve been battered all day by storm force winds. Stornoway had 75mph and it’s looking like they might get 100mph tomorrow. The rain has just been phenomenal and at one point the entire world disappeared as a violent burst of weather swept in from the south west and blew the top off the chimney, which ended up about 30 feet away. It’s still wild at the moment and it’s quite exciting listening to the roar of the gale through the trees.

another storm on the way

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday was wild as forecast with storm force winds and torrential rain in the west and Thursday is looking like an even stormier day, with 100mph winds forecast for the hills.

The above chart produces the following forecast:

a winter storm on blaven

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

At last, a day on the hill and with the forecast for gusting 60mph and blizzards, it was going to be interesting to say the least. So I decided to head up Blaven via the south summit. I know the route well and was hoping I could experience some wild winter weather without having to worry too much about the navigation. We’ve been having some very unseasonal weather lately, with lots of snow on the hills and strong winds. Normally winter is over by now on the west coast but an Arctic blast has just hit us, with gale force northerlies and huge dumps of snow on the tops.