https://www.scotsman.com/news/major-transport-delays-as-wind-and-rain-blasts-scotland-1-4812042
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
"Severe weather warning"
(7425 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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There's a large tarpaulin on our washing line which is supposed to be drying out. Ten pegs, but I'll maybe take it down and pop a few slabs on it this evening. The shed whose roof blew off during Hurricane Bawbag was sold a few weeks ago; hopefully the new owner used the screws supplied to fasten it down properly. The trampoline is trapped in a corner and retained by overgrowth of nearby plants, but could maybe use a wee rope to fasten it to the bay tree.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Glad to have opted for shorts and t-shirt today. The forecast claims it will feel like 19 degrees later.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I knew it was a bad idea to go back to jeans this week :(
Posted 6 years ago # -
Had to stop and remove my fleece and my jacket. Totally tropical.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Warm today but also blowy. Going east on the towpath I was basically blown along, could coast without pedalling at all. Met hardly any westward cyclists, and who can blame them. (And I guess I’ll pay for it in the evening.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
Very odd at about 7am when the wind suddenly hit us up in the hills in Colinton. All quiet outside and then just suddenly a huge gust hit us and there was the front! Pretty cool in some ways.
Posted 6 years ago # -
It was very gusty in places on the towpath this morning, but generally quite manageable. Big John advised me that I should dismount when I reached Slateford Aqueduct because he had seen a couple of cyclists wobbling their way across it, but the water merely looked headwindy as I approached it so I cycled across anyway. If anything, I felt rather less safe cycling across the wider Scott Russell Aqueduct which is odd.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@jdanielp I was alerting you to the incoming presence of the force of nature known as Big John. Several cyclists had stopped for him to pass so he was not in full flow.
He actually looked frail on the aqueduct. Though maybe just breaking in a new pair of shoes.
The boxes I had spotted him with the previous Sunday were for CDs, DVDs and books. His wife has asked him to clear them out. THis does not apply to her shoes of which there is a cupboard full still in boxes (he was warming to the topic. We then got on to student loan debt being transferred from universities to Vulture Capitalists which I liked very much.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The Met was forecasting 52mph gusts at Gogarbank at 9am today. That's "gusting force nine" in shipping forecast speak AFAIK. Their "last 24 hours" report now shows that it was gusting 44mph - still force eight. Gusts that strong can knock frail people over (or, dare I say it, knock cyclists off narrow towpaths).
According to the Met web site there was a yellow warning of wind covering 03:00 today until midnight tonight. I didn't receive any notification of that from their app on my phone, and it's not exactly obvious on their web site or the app even now. I'm sure they used to put a clickable weather warning icon on the forecast itself, if there was one in force for the area you were looking at, rather than having to click on a generic weather warnings link and then scroll through the list to find out if any of the warnings currently in force apply to your area.
The last positive notification I received from them of a weather warning for Edinburgh was earlier this week, about the heavy rain on Saturday. That was later cancelled - though I now see it's been reinstated, albeit without a notification appearing on my phone.
Basically, I think the Met Office are not doing a good job of publicising their weather warnings at the moment. I do wonder whether they have taken too much to heart previous complaints that they were over-dramatising "a bit of bad weather". (And then I wonder how many of the 1000-odd drivers who got stuck on the M80 by the Beast from the East thought the "do not travel" warning was a lot of fuss over nothing when they set out?)
Edit: I see that the Met Office's Storm Centre web page still doesn't seem to have officially named this weather system "Storm Callum", although they do seem to be using the hashtag on their rather sparse Twitter feed.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I’m on holiday in Stornoway and the ferries are cancelled. Thankfully the storm should blow itself out tonight as we sail to Ullapool tomorrow.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I woke up this morning at 07h00 and it was so still I could hear the bypass 3km away. Now there are occasional leaf-tornadoes wandering around.
Posted 6 years ago # -
If I could change one thing about Scotland other than the obvious it would be the wind.
Starting to do my nut in.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Don't ever move to Orkney. You would descend into madness before the first winter was a quarter gone.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Makes up for the slog that was my ride home yesterday.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@steveo ride home yesterday was haaaaard
Posted 6 years ago # -
Heading West was a tough 7-8mph slog. Hey-ho at least it wasn't raining/cold
Posted 6 years ago # -
Its not often I use my granny ring in town.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Same here. The stretch west from the Balgreen tram stop can be a killer - unsheltered from any westerlies. On my small ring this morning as well.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Joppa to The Shore felt relentless, with the occasional blast from a side street or opening to keep you on your toes.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Small ring almost all the way home last night.
Max speed was about the same as average speed this morning.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Was there a weather warning for last night/this morning? I missed it if so. The wind on the towpath was gustier and stronger overall this morning than it was for any of the storms so far this autumn, at least while I was in them.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Decided not to fight the wind and enjoyed a 40km tailwind ride to Glenrothes and hopped on the train to work.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Well that was hard and scary at times. Cycled Clerwood to the ERI and back, very difficult when hit by side gusts. Glad to be home :)
Posted 6 years ago # -
Tree down near Berwick.
Stuck @ Platform 19.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@jdanielp: Was there a weather warning for last night/this morning?
Not that I was aware of (I have weather warning notifications turned on for saved locations in the Met Office app).
The Met Office web site says that Gogarbank recorded winds gusting at 48mph (force nine) overnight. According to this web site it was windier last night at Gogarbank than it had been since around the first week in October. Certainly a lot windier than Storm Callum turned out to be the following week, despite the swithery warnings which were issued (then withdrawm, then issued again in revised form) for that event.
Bear in mind also that Gogarbank is at 59m ASL. Plenty of bits of south Edinburgh are 100m or more higher up than that - and wind speed generally increases with altitude.
It does rather hack me off that TV weather forecasts seem to bang on about whether or not it's going to be sunny tomorrow, and barely mention (if at all) that you will stand a good chance of having your hat blown off/be blown in to the canal/have a tree land on your head.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I got the bus after a night of hearing things/bins blow down the street. Don't regret my choices!
Posted 6 years ago # -
@ejstubbs oh well. The wind kept me up overnight so I was feeling quite belligerent towards it by this morning. I shouted at it on several occasions as I was cycling west along the canal, but it didn't appear to take any notice.
Posted 6 years ago #
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