Scotland Weather discussion

[Northernlights]

Photos

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Edited January 31, 2022 by Northernlights

[NUT]

a bit of a blow last night but it did calm down relatively quickly. Quite a nice start to the day actully

[Northern Strath]

Power off for the first storm though not following Corrie, plenty trees down locally with both.Wintry showers sat and Sunday with a wee covering this morning

 

Hope all this stormy sh@te earns us some proper winter. T-shirt January 2022 has been productive but boring as hell. 

[Hairy Celt]

If it wasn't for all the dicking about with random power cuts and everyone going on and on and on about stuff..... it would be quite a nice morning.

Actually it is a nice morning.

[Northernlights]

1 hour ago, Hairy Celt said:

If it wasn't for all the dicking about with random power cuts and everyone going on and on and on about stuff..... it would be quite a nice morning.

Actually it is a nice morning.

Must be above   you but a good section of the Black Isle was white this morning with the Cawdor hills having a good covering Young Mr Northernlights has just done 2 mile round trip via wood tracks  with tractor to meet Tesco delivery van . Most important!!!!!! photo to follow.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Northernlights

[Hairy Celt]

12 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Must be above   you but a good section of the Black Isle was white this morning with the Caewor hills having a good covering Young Mr Northernlights has just done 2 mile round trip via wood tracks  with tractor to meet Tesco delivery van . Most important!!!!!! photo to follow.

All we had was some melting slush at the bottom of the windscreen in the shade.

My Mum sat in our kitchen while her house re-heats - her power was mostly off for about 12 hours and even her well-insulated small bungalow sheds heat quickly when it's cold and windy.

[Northernlights]

1 hour ago, Northernlights said:

Must be above   you but a good section of the Black Isle was white this morning with the Cawdor hills having a good covering Young Mr Northernlights has just done 2 mile round trip via wood tracks  with tractor to meet Tesco delivery van . Most important!!!!!! photo to follow.

Photo

[Ravelin]

Power been out at house since 11:30pm and while of Alford looks out too. Sat in car after walking dog and finding a rare patch of mobile signal. Getting tired of this now. 

[Northernlights]

Just a comment on these automated reporting systems which get overloaded when it gets busy.My 90 year old neighbour could not get through to electric company this morning to say he had no power and the estate forester took 25 minutes to report  the trees down on the farm road.  So I took to Facebook to report it hoping a more modern way will let them know how many folk do not have power. There are a group of 7 houses at the end of the farm road. Luckily our supply at the farm comes across open fields and is unaffected.  Looking at their facebook page lots of complaints about the cost of electricity as contracts renew. What a year we are in for in all sorts of ways.

[Quinach]

Decamped to Westhill and environ for the day as SSEN won't even put up a reconnection estimate now.  Definitely fewer of their vans driving round this area compared to Arwen.  Disruption with the latest storms worse than with Arwen, a lot due to the complete failure of the phone system - what happened to the generator backup for the masts???  Had to laugh when I heard today that the BT phone box nearest us at Monymusk is supposedly not working as it needs electricity and a mobile signal.  God help you if you need to make an emergency call.

As for the weather, an evil roar to the wind last night  Thankfully no house damage but even more trees down all around us.  The German pension fund that bought a few forests near us last year now have a lovely mess of firewood to deal with.  Light winds now, grey and 3.5c.

[Ravelin]

19 minutes ago, Quinach said:

Disruption with the latest storms worse than with Arwen, a lot due to the complete failure of the phone system - what happened to the generator backup for the masts???

Found a good 4G signal sat in car outside the roads depot on the outskirts of Alford. Fish and Chip van in Alford too, at transport museum, but had a massive queue at lunchtime. Luckily we have a gas hob so can still cook on that. 

[Ravelin]

House sprung back to life at 17:10, hopefully to stay thay way. Forecast to be windy tomorrow again but not as strong so fingers crossed there's no weakened trees in perilous positions beside power lines. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Ravelin

[Hairy Celt]

This   from icelandmonitor.mbl.is today. Something I've not seen for a few years.

[milkmaid]

power restored at 20.10 ,daughters and hubby had a hairy night and managed to get home at 8 20 this morning ,they are tired but ok 

[shunthebartlett92]

3 hours ago, Ravelin said:

House sprung back to life at 17:10, hopefully to stay thay way. Forecast to be windy tomorrow again but not as strong so fingers crossed there's no weakened trees in perilous positions beside power lines. 

uh oh, i booked a night in a hotel in aberdeen because the power was out in skene (just outside westhill) at around 4.45. I kinda hope the power stays off for 24 hours so we have a compensation case to make...

[Puffy MacCloud]

Today started off dry, sunny, cold and calm but then became overcast, probably just out of habit.

High temperature today was 7.4⁰C at 13:33 up from the low of 1.8⁰C at 03:58 and now 7.0⁰C, humidity rose from 74% at 06:03 to 94% at 20:17 and still now, wind is 6 to 12mph south-southwesterly with a maximum gust of 18mph at 02:49, pressure currently 1013.6hPa and dropping like  stone, there’s been 3.4mm of rainfall today and 3.6mm in the last 24 hours, clous cover is 8/8 and the dew point is at 6⁰C.

Figures for January 2022 are:-

Highs – temperature 13.2⁰C, humidity 96%, wind 25mph, pressure 1038.6hPa, total rainfall 61.6mm.

Lows – temperature -3.4⁰C, humidity 72%, pressure 987.1hPa, dew point -5⁰C.

[Puffy MacCloud]

On 30/01/2022 at 09:37, snowidea said:

I'm literally crying reading this

Yes, I was near to tears myself, but were the BBC interested? No. And my bird feeding stations were blown over twice! Both Malik and Corrie. How many trees can claim that, eh?

[Ravelin]

29 minutes ago, shunthebartlett92 said:

uh oh, i booked a night in a hotel in aberdeen because the power was out in skene (just outside westhill) at around 4.45. I kinda hope the power stays off for 24 hours so we have a compensation case to make...

Wife had a text from our (elderly) neighbours earlier asking if power was back on as they had gone to a hotel in Aberdeen for the night. Saw them out at thier horses this morning so must have gone this afternoon, probably not too long before the power was restored.

Although SSEN have undoubtedly been better than they were with Arwen, thier estimated restoration times have still been virtually useless. Certainly not useful enough to base decisions on. When our power went on Sat morning their Power Track site said back by Tue midnight, but it was back on Sat night. When it went again last night it said Tue again, but was on early evening today. Hell, no more than an hour before today's fault was fixed the detail for the fault  coverin g a huge are around Alford was still sat on "fault reported", when it almost certainly should have been "engineers on site". 

I know its difficult with so many faults, but they still have a way to go with keeping people informed. The 105 telephone message is that general its pointless, as are the messages they then phone you with. Don't get me on "for further information visit www.SSEN...." either when no one has power and the mobile network is down. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Ravelin
More rant added

[Glaswegianblizzard]

Feel bad for those without power in the North East, you’ve been battered this winter. Also feel lucky as living in a big city power cuts are pretty much unheard of.

But in terms of wider weather chat I’m starting to think we’d be as well looking to spring now. 

[Northernlights]

9 minutes ago, Ravelin said:

Wife had a text from our (elderly) neighbours earlier asking if power was back on as they had gone to a hotel in Aberdeen for the night. Saw them out at thier horses this morning so must have gone this afternoon, probably not too long before the power was restored.

Although SSEN have undoubtedly been better than they were with Arwen, thier estimated restoration times have still been virtually useless. Certainly not useful enough to base decisions on. When our power went on Sat morning their Power Track site said back by Tue midnight, but it was back on Sat night. When it went again last night it said Tue again, but was on early evening today. Hell, no more than an hour before today's fault was fixed the detail for the fault  coverin g a huge are around Alford was still sat on "fault reported", when it almost certainly should have been "engineers on site". 

I know its difficult with so many faults, but they still have a way to go with keeping people informed. The 105 telephone message is that general its pointless, as are the messages they then phone you with. Don't get me on "for further information visit www.SSEN...." either when no one has power and the mobile network is down. 

Yes our 90 year old neighbour who walked up to the farm  through the woodto see if we had power this morning had tried all morning to contact SSE to say he had no power When I reported trees down at 8.30am this morning as no one had reported loss of power   it was deemed low priority.  Then comes word from the estate that they can"t remove trees in case damaged pole maybe dangerous which up to a point is very fair and they need to have SSE on site to check. However according to SSE engineer who I spoke to today estates  will always say it is dangerous as SSE then have to cut and remove trees from near lines at SSE s cost. The politics between every organisation these days and who pays for what drives me crazy somtimes. I reported along with another neighbour our 90 year olds loss of power to SSE this afternoon . Another neighbour who was away for the weekend has also lost power so I hope it has moved up the prority list as engineer said he was going to look at it this evening.

[Northernlights]

26 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Yes our 90 year old neighbour who walked up to the farm  through the woodto see if we had power this morning had tried all morning to contact SSE to say he had no power When I reported trees down at 8.30am this morning as no one had reported loss of power   it was deemed low priority.  Then comes word from the estate that they can"t remove trees in case damaged pole maybe dangerous which up to a point is very fair and they need to have SSE on site to check. However according to SSE engineer who I spoke to today estates  will always say it is dangerous as SSE then have to cut and remove trees from near lines at SSE s cost. The politics between every organisation these days and who pays for what drives me crazy somtimes. I reported along with another neighbour our 90 year olds loss of power to SSE this afternoon . Another neighbour who was away for the weekend has also lost power so I hope it has moved up the prority list as engineer said he was going to look at it this evening.

Update two SSE engineers have just called in to say neighbours at end of road back on and they  will    isolate damaged  line tomorrow  to allow estate to cut up trees tomorrow .Have to say I find this very amusing so when you watch these repairs  going on there are lots of background politics going on.

[101_North]

10c at 7am!! Looks like a breezy day with a bit of sun. If it hadn't been for the lack of rain I'd be screaming about how awful this winter has been. Actual winter weather nonexistent and it looks like staying that way for a while yet! Rubbish!

[Northernlights]

11 hours ago, Northernlights said:

Update two SSE engineers have just called in to say neighbours at end of road back on and they  will    isolate damaged  line tomorrow  to allow estate to cut up trees tomorrow .Have to say I find this very amusing so when you watch these repairs  going on there are lots of background politics going on.

Milder today at 8c and still breezy.

The Saga continues. Line isolated but Estate needs it in writing so engineer needs to come back when contractors arrive sometime today. According to another neighbour who phoned up today and works for SSE there have been letters going out for years telling landowners to control trees next to power lines.Thay also said in the last twenty years the NE of Scotland part of SSE  has gone from 35 line maintenance staff to just 4 currently and they just can"t cope with prolonged stormy weather.Hope they cull as many managers.!!!

Another observationis OK wind directions have been different but I have never seen so many trees come down so easily

[CoastRainbow]

Howdy ! 

Very gusty here on the firth of the Clyde !!

I think its cause its been soooooooooo long since we had any gales ,, but it aint half roaring !!

 

 

 

[Quinach]

2 hours ago, Northernlights said:

According to another neighbour who phoned up today and works for SSE there have been letters going out for years telling landowners to control trees next to power lines.Thay also said in the last twenty years the NE of Scotland part of SSE  has gone from 35 line maintenance staff to just 4 currently and they just can"t cope with prolonged stormy weather.Hope they cull as many managers.!!!

Another observation is OK wind directions have been different but I have never seen so many trees come down so easily

As ever, money is the root cause of all the power cuts.  Heard similar comments from our farmer neighbours.  Another issue is that a lot of the forestry round here was flogged of by the local estates to city investment companies who then sold them on piecemeal to other financial companies here and abroad (eg the German pension fund I previously mentioned).  None of them maintain a local presence so contacting owners to make emergency decisions is time consuming.  As for getting maintenance done, with no empathy for the local area, they seem to not give a darn - how else to explain this kind of lunacy where the high voltage line for hundreds of houses is towered over by plantation firs...

That is the broken line that is leaving us still without power, so decamped to Aberdeen once again with the kids.

Strong gusty winds, occasional rain showers and milder than of late at 9c.

Edit, regarding the extreme tree loss, farmer neighbour was given an explanation by a visiting ecologist that trees root system round here are weaker than usual thanks to the droughts a few years ago killing of some of the root mass (supposedly takes 5yrs for them to recover).

Edited February 1, 2022 by Quinach