Gusts to Hurricane Force

One would never guess that the little muddle of surface winds just to the south of Newfoundland at midday today - circled on this clip from Cameron Beccario's imaginative website (here) - is forecast to strike NW Scotland, and particularly the far north, with gale force winds carrying gusts to hurricane force.

The only website which has consistently forecast this is XC Weather.  Both YrNo and the BBC have steadily modified their predictions as the week has gone by, with the BBC now issuing an amber warning for high winds gusting to force 12.

Nor would one guess from looking out across the Sound that, in the next few hours, the mean wind speed is set to rise to storm force 10 (according to Yr No) by 3.00am tomorrow morning.

We enjoyed some bright, sunny weather today, mixed in with a few hail showers, but the temperature has remained low - a maximum of 7C even in the sunshine.  Picture shows a kestrel hovering over the field at the back of the Ferry Stores at lunch time with a curlew passing it.

Filthy Weather

We're enjoying a day of grey skies and wind speeds of around force 6 gusting to 7, and almost incessant rain.  The burns, following rain all night and through today, a total of 22mm, are rushing torrents - the one in this picture is normally little more than a trickle.

It's filthy weather, but not so bad as to deter one brave soul from spending time picking wilks - winkles in English - which can attract good prices in the export markets of southern Europe.  There's something to be said for an occupation like this: it beats sitting around all day indoors waiting for the weather to improve.

We continue to watch the forecast for Friday and Saturday with some interest.  XC Weather is still forecasting some extremes for the mornings of those two days (above), and YrNo is beginning to agree, forecasting a 'strong gale' for Friday early hours.  The BBC remains unconvinced, though it has consistently carried a 'yellow early warning of winds', beginning late Thursday evening.

Weather Forecast

XCWeather - above - persists in its dire predictions for early Friday, with the maximum wind speeds now increased to 83mph at three in the morning.  Meanwhile, YrNo and the BBC have raised their expectations, but only to a force 7/8.

At the same time the BBC is now forecasting a force 6 southerly for tomorrow morning, while YrNo suggests it will be a full gale.

The forecasts must have filtered through to the RAF as two Tornados seized the opportunity to do some low flying practice today, something they haven't done for some time. One machine passed along the north shore of Kilchoan Bay so low it looked as if it would land on the summit of Glas Bheinn.

Childlike Wanderings

When we ran the Ferry Stores and had a young daughter living with us, this was one of our favourite places after work ended for the day, the beach just to the east of the shop which runs from the road to the mouth of the Millburn.  The company of a child gave one the excuse to beachcomb, and this was always....

....a great place to find things washed in by the sea, some of which are rather unusual, like this, the egg case of the dog whelk.  It seemed quite natural to be with a child wandering around collecting things.  It brought back memories of my own happy wanderings as a child.  Then I grew up and felt that, as an adult, I should have more serious things to do - but today, being old and caring less about what other people think, I soon found myself moving from place to place picking up shells, some common, some more unusual....

....and laying them out.  People passed in their cars, slowed, probably saw who it was, shook their heads, and accelerated away about their business.  Limpet, cockle, pecten, razor shell, mussel, top, whelk..... more and more beautiful things to be picked up, arranged, admired, photographed, and then sorted so....

....the best could be pictured together, particularly the big scallop and the unusually large and pearly top.  This is a good beach for scallops, about the only one on West Ardnamurchan where they can be found in any numbers: at one time we used to collect them for use as ash trays.

Part of the fun of wandering a beach like this, which is also rich in the remains of human habitation, is the odd things one finds, like this fragment of a bed pan.  Since occupation of the area behind the beach, part of Ormsaigmore, goes back some 6,000 years to the neolithic, there's always the faint chance one might stumble across something really interesting.

Not that this morning's beachcombing didn't turn up some very puzzling things, like the lower leg of a lamb and, no distance away, the similar lower leg of a pig.  At that point I left, fearing perhaps I might find something even more gruesome.

Up In the Air

Eagles continue to pass our house regularly.  In general, the ones that fly low along the coast below us tend to be sea eagles - we saw one at lunchtime today - while those following the ridge behind the house are often golden eagles.  This one was above the house but it was difficult to identify it with any certainty.

Earlier today a pair of raptors, this is one, came directly over the house at a height - too high to distinguish any colours or patterns on them and at the very limit of the camera's capabilities.  This is one of the frustrations of days like today, when the sun hasn't appeared and all one can hope for is a fairly clear silhouette.  They may have been peregrines.

Whatever they were, they were followed by these three, flying even higher.  The cry we heard was that of a buzzard, and the two lower ones look like buzzards, but I'm less certain about the higher one.

On the subject of flying wildlife, this moth landed on one of the large panes of our front door on New Year's Eve.  It was a wet, mild and breezy evening.  What on earth is a moth doing out and about at this time of year?

Today we have a steadily southeasterly wind which has risen to about force 5 as the day progressed, and we're promised not too bad a day tomorrow, but as we approach the weekend things become very uncertain.  This is a clipping from the forecast on XC Weather, predicting winds early on Friday morning of up to 76mph - that's well into hurricane force 12.

Look at the other forecasts, and there's considerable disagreement.  This is taken from Yr No, and is completely different, and the BBC seems to agree with it.  It'll be interesting to see which is right, particularly as there is an archaeology course arranged at the Kilchoan learning Centre all day Saturday, when we're looking at how to make records in a churchyard.

Whatever else is in the air, spring must be.  These snowdrops burst into flower in our front garden as the New Year came in - and a very welcome sight they are.