Clean Up After the Hurricane (in Scotland?)

[Minstrel Boy]

CLEAN-UP AFTER THE HURRICANE

Jan 13 2005

SCOTLAND was brought to a standstill yesterday after the hurricane from hell. More than 25,000 homes were still without power last night as the worst storms for a decade hit the country. Many of those affected were also left without water as supplies failed.

All rail travel and ferry services were stopped at the height of the storms and drivers faced huge tailbacks because of bridge closures and storm damage. Some roads were washed away by flooding or cut off by mudslides. At one stage, all the major bridges, except Kincardine, were closed.

...

In Fort William and in Caol, Argyll, 20 homes had to be evacuated and cars were washed away by the floods. Harbourside restaurant owner Finlay Finlayson told how he and his staff crawled to safety along ropes. Waves of up to 20ft engulfed the Crannog on Fort William's town pier, as seen on our front page yesterday.

Finlay, 49, said: 'The tide was higher than any of the older sea salts can recall.'

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15071093&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=clean-up-after-the-hurricane-name_page.html

[SweetLeftFoot]

1. Living in Edinburgh

I can tell you it was a mighty storm.

[TahitiNut]

17. Stay away from Leith and sit back in the Hotel Bar ...

... above Prince's Street, sipping a good single malt, and gazing happily at Edinburgh Castle. (At least that's what I recall with great pleasure.)

[SweetLeftFoot]

22. Hey

I live in Leith. Mon the Hibees!

[TahitiNut]

23. Oops! Well, stay dry, mon.

Don't get to close to the harbo(u)r. :silly: Maybe you could get a room at Holyrood?

There was a great pub near the corner of Princes Street and Leith Walk ... where military types once went. I remember it fondly ... at least the first hour or two.

[Joe_VB]

2. Wow! I didn't know hurricanes can occur that far into the northern

latitudes. I can relate, I live in coastal Virginia.

[ally_sc]

3. I am glad you are okay sweetleft...

it is a terrible thing those storms...i know hugo through me for a loop. didn't lose anything but all the wreckage and being without electricity for so long i can relate to the folks in Scotland...just a horrible thing to happen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Technically it may not be a true hurricane

ie a rotating storm with an eye. But the wind had gusts up to 124 mph; and a steady speed of 73mph or above is called "hurricane" on the Beaufort scale. I think Scotland did suffer this.

[Squatch]

7. Not a true hurricane, per se. Just a big storm with

hurricane force winds.

[Minstrel Boy]

12. I'm not a meteorologist, but the satellite maps

of northern Europe the last couple of days showed what looked to me like a classic hurricane formation.

Looks like a similar big storm over the North Atlantic right now.

Hasn't it been forecast that the warming of the North Atlantic would carry unusually severe storms to Northern Europe?

This is a great site, using satellite imagery, to see what the global environment is up to. (Seven people are noted as dead in Europe from the "hurricane.")

http://satellite.ehabich.info/globalincident.htm

[McKenzie]

4. we got hit but not too badly

in north-east Scotland. The bloody wind kept me awake all night the night before last. Seems to have died down today though it's mighty cold. Driving around this morning I saw a lot of damaged trees, roof coverings lifted by the wind and the back roads are covered in silt off the fields.

Sigh, I have to drive to Edinburgh tomorrow so the joys of the early morning Forth Bridge traffic await me.

[jus_the_facts]

15. Take care over there.....

.....I'd LOVE to be able to visit my BELL homelands one day...had a good friend from high school live in Aberdeen for a bit...she sent me awesome pictures and raved about ya'lls neck o'the woods....sigh...one day before I die...hopefully I'll get to travel and see where my bloodline originated. :hi:

[McKenzie]

25. I'm less than an hour away from the Granite City

you probably would like it over here.

regards

McKenzie

[eric144]

5. prefab

I live in a renovated WWII prefab house near Glasgow. It felt like we were going to repeat a scene from the wizard of oz. Pretty scary.

If you can't even trust the air you breathe, what can you trust ?

[Samurai_Writer]

8. My friend in sweden

said the winds there were hurricane force as well. I was really surprised. Liviing in Florida, I'm used to hurricanes, but I didn't think those type of storms occurred that far north.

[Squatch]

9. It's not a tropical hurricane. Just a big assed conventional

non-cyclonic storm with hurrican-forced winds.

[Ripley]

11. Didn't L.A. or San Fran have hurricane force winds recently too?

And they're warning of tornadoes today in my area...in JANUARY!

But GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT HAPPENING, so stop saying that.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. I'm sorry, but it was cyclonic.

The current map you posted below doesn't show the conditions earlier in the week.

I saw it. It was cyclonic.

[Squatch]

18. That is not a cyclonic storm.

Cyclonic storms arise from geostrophic imbalances in the atmosphere. They are the result of air flow down pressure gradients being modified by coriolis.

This storm was a front that had "curled" due to prevailing wind conditions (jet stream).

In other words, it's basically and eddy. A big eddy, but an eddy, nonetheless.

[Squatch]

10. Current N Atlantic satellite picture

[Minstrel Boy]

14. And here's an image from yesterday:

[FlaGranny]

16. No meterologist here, but I have noticed

that the really big storms usually have a "comma" shape. Could it be that the storm becomes so strong that the comma wraps around, making it look similar to a tropical-type cyclone?

[Minstrel Boy]

19. "Hurricane Gudrun blasts Europe" - Jan 10

Hurricane Gudrun blasts Europe
10 January 2005

A powerful storm named Hurricane Gudrun by Norwegian meteorologists swept across Europe on 9 January causing huge blackouts and nuclear shutdowns.

Over 500,000 Swedish households were left without electricity as winds gusting at up to 180km/h downed power lines between Östergötland and Skåne. Anders Strandberg of Sydkraft said that it will probably take several days to reconnect all the company’s customers. On the morning of 10 January, it was reported that 220,000 Swedish homes were still without power.

Sweden’s worst storms since 1969 blew salt water into electricity transmission equipment causing five power reactors to be shutdown at Barsebäck and Ringhals. In Finland, engineers at Loviisa prepared for a shutdown as sea levels rose by 1.7m.

The Latvian government declared an energy crisis as 40% of the country lost power while thousands more were affected in Estonia and Lithuania. In Denmark, 60,000 households lost power.
http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=132&storyCode=2026094

[Bouncy Ball]

20. What's up with that?

I know I'm living on a great big prairie (north Texas) but DAMN we've had some fierce winds that just won't let up the last few days.

Yesterday I went to lunch with a coworker and the metal roof was coming off of a nearby building. We ran for cover to the restaurant we were going to. Thought we were going to be swept away.

We don't normally get winds like THAT here and not for a couple of days running, either.

I understand there have also been some incredibly powerful wind storms in Indiana and other parts of the US recently.

[Minstrel Boy]

21. "Storms will be the norm" - Norway, Jan 13

Storms will be the norm

Hundreds of Norwegians remained without electricity and telephone service on Thursday, after the near-hurricane called "Inga" raged over much of the country. Forecasters warned that this winter's extreme weather likely will become the norm, not the exception, in years to come.

...

Climate researchers believe the string of heavy storms that's pounded Norway, the UK and much of northern Europe in recent weeks are a clear sign of climate changes that are here to stay.

"We can't rule out cold winters in the future for Norway, but they will steadily be less frequent," Professor Helge Drange told newspaper Aftenposten.

Drange, a climate researcher at the Bjerknessenteret in Bergen, believes that temperatures below freezing and Norway's traditional snow-rich winters will gradually be replaced by warmer, wetter and windier weather.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article947428.ece

[PassingFair]

24. Was Aberdeen hit?

I have many relatives there...