A MONTH OF RAIN IN 36 HOURS
Road and rail routes hit by torrential downpours
TORRENTIAL downpours dumped more than a month’s worth of rain across eastern Scotland at the weekend as Storm Alex battered the UK, sparking landslides.
Angus and Aberdeenshire normally receive just 3.9in of rain during the entire month of October.
But a weather station operated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency registered almost 4.9in at Mongour in Aberdeenshire between Friday night and yesterday afternoon.
Forecaster Tom Morgan said: “It is a huge amount of rain to fall in just 36 hours. It is only because the region has been relatively dry that there were not more issues than there have been.
“If this level of rain had fallen on sodden ground, the consequences would have been much worse.”
A Met Office amber warning for heavy rain had been in place for much of the east coast, beginning at 6pm on Saturday and lasting until 6am yesterday,
While motorists bore the brunt of the wild weather on Saturday night, it was the railways that witnessed greatest upheaval.
Rail services in the affected area had been suspended from 7pm on Saturday due to the warnings but
Scotrail said yesterday that 16 routes had to be checked by Network Rail before trains could begin running again yesterday.
Landslides were discovered between Inverkeithing and Aberdour and another found north of Kirkcaldy. A landslide in August caused a train derailment in the county that left three dead.
By yesterday afternoon, flooding had closed the rail routes between Aberdeen and Inverness, Aberdeen and Stonehaven and between Arbroath and Montrose.
At one point yesterday, Sepa had 42 flood alerts and warnings in place, though these began to recede as the day went on.
On the roads, a landslip shut the A82 at Urquhart Castle in Inverness-shire.
The A83 in Argyll was closed on Saturday night as a precaution at the Rest and Be Thankful over fears that the rain could cause a further landslide at the troubled spot. It reopened yesterday.
The A93 Blairgowrie Road – the highest in Britain – also reopened after flood damage was removed at Cargill in Perthshire.
In Arbroath, children were pictured out on boats and paddleboards in a park in the town which was under two feet of water.
Nearby low pressure wi l l maintain Scotland’s unsettled spell of weather going into this week.