STORM WARNING PART II
Abigail leaves a trail of chaos... and now here’s Hurricane Kate
IT was the first British storm to be given its own name, and the first of this winter.
And it certainly lived up to that billing, bringing freezing temperatures, a blanket of snow and leaving more than 20,000 homes without power.
Lightning strikes and winds of 84mph resulted in more than 30 high-voltage faults as storm Abigail wreaked havoc with the electricity network.
A mountain rescue team was also pushed to the limit after a Chinese hillwalker decided to take a trip up Ben Nevis in the eye of the storm.
Meanwhile, the Highlands were plunged into winter with freezing temperatures and an unexpected flurry of snow.
As Abigail began to show signs of abating, yet more bad news came last night with the tail end of Hurricane Kate set to hit today, bringing with her yet more torrential rain for the weekend.
Those in the North bore the brunt of the storm. At its height, 20,000 homes in the Western Isles, Shetland, Skye, Colonsay, Argyll and Angus were left without power. By yesterday morning, however, 500 customers remained off-grid.
One of the worst affected areas was the island of Colonsay, where every home was without power.
Sheena Nisbet, chairman of Colonsay Community Council, said: ‘About 2.30am there was a huge, huge clap of thunder and the place lit up. The whole island’s power is off today and only some phones are working. We live on the other side of the island from the house whose chimney was hit, so it must have been terrible over there.
‘The house was struck by lightning, smashing the chimney to bits. Some bits fell through the roof and part of the chimney fell on to a van. It cut through the metal, so it must have been a terrible force.’
Despite Abigail flexing her muscles a hillwalker risked ‘certain death’ trying to climb Britain’s highest mountain.
The man in his twenties was found 3,000ft up Ben Nevis near the
‘Rain will be heavy, floods are a worry’
Observatory Gully by a mountain rescue team.
John Stevenson, leader of Lochaber Mountain Rescue, described him as a ‘silly boy’, adding: ‘He would not have survived the night. When he phoned police with a 999 call he said he was near ice.
‘Fortunately there was very little snow on the Ben at the time, so we had a good idea of where he was, otherwise we would have had a big job finding him, and in time.
‘It was sheer chance we found him – we knew where he might be from his description to police of being near ice.
‘Ironically the mountain is covered in snow today, so it would have been almost impossible to know where he was. He had fallen and had a bump on his head and injured his chest. He did not realise what he had let himself in for. He just thought it would be a nice wee walk in the Highlands.’
More than 20 members of the rescue team scoured the North Face of the mountain, an operation that started at 2.30pm on Thursday and lasted until nearly 9pm. The walker was taken to Belford Hospital in nearby Fort William but his injuries were not thought to be serious.
The strongest gust recorded during storm Abigail was 84mph on South Uist at 9pm on Thursday.
On Shetland, winds reached more than 80mph, while on the mainland a gust of 67mph was recorded at Blackford Hill, Edinburgh.
Ferry services were left crippled, with waves nearly 35ft high recorded off the Western Isles.
On Thursday a CalMac ferry taking schoolchildren to Raasay from Skye, which should have taken 20 minutes, was stuck at sea for three hours.
Anna Ellis, whose 15-year-old son Conor was on the boat, said: ‘They got sent home from school because of the weather. I watched the ferry getting blown about, but the crew knew what they were doing. It was nerve-wracking for me, but there were a few kids on the ferry and they had a great time.
‘One of them was playing music on
the ferry to entertain them, I think she was playing the fiddle.’
As temperatures plunged, storm Abigail also left a surprise splattering of snow in the Scottish Highlands. A spokesman for the Met Office said: ‘The colder air in the wake of Abigail has allowed snow to fall across the higher areas of Scotland such as the Grampians. Five hundred metres [1,640ft] above sea level, we are expecting snow to lie and cover about ten centimetres [4in] on the ground.’
As the winds began to calm yesterday forecasters warned of yet more weather misery on the way with the country set to be drenched by the tail end of Hurricane Kate.
The 1,200-mile wide former hurricane is due to arriving this morning after churning across the Atlantic.
Last night it was announced Glasgow’s Christmas lights switch-on scheduled for tomorrow would be cancelled as a results of the barrage of stormy weather.
The Met Office has also issued yellow weather warnings for rain covering large swathes of Scotland.
Those in the West could face flooding with as much as four inches of rain predicted in a 40-hour deluge.
A spokesman for Glasgow Life said: ‘The stormy weather battering much of Scotland has created real problems for our teams working on the Glasgow Christmas Lights Switch-On.
‘Now, with a weather warning in place for further significant wind and rain over the weekend, public safety issues have been raised. As a result we’ve taken the difficult decision to cancel the event.’
The organisers of Ayr Christmas Lights Switch-On confirmed their event tomorrow has also been cancelled.
MeteoGroup forecaster John Griffiths said: ‘Kate will bring rain from early Saturday to late Sunday for the NorthWest of the UK, with continuous rain for around 40 hours. Rain will be heavy and persistent. Floods are a worry.’