Sting in tail of Hurricane Ian gives Scotland a 70mph soaking
TRAVELLERS faced widespread disruption as Scotland was battered by high winds and torrential rain yesterday.
Gusts reached up to 70mph across some Northern and Western areas, while 94mph was recorded on the 4,084ft summit of Cairn Gorm near Aviemore.
Parts of the country suffered localised flooding as a result of wild weather.
A strong jet stream, indirectly influenced by Hurricane Ian, prompted the Met Office to
‘Emergency restrictions’
issue a yellow weather warning. Travel disruption occurred on CalMac, ScotRail and National Rail services, while high winds and rain led to challenging driving conditions.
Forecasters said a strong jet stream had been made more powerful by warm, tropical air being pushed over the Atlantic by Hurricane Ian, which has been battering Florida.
CalMac said several sailings on ferry routes across their network had been cancelled yesterday morning. Most were later reinstated.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issuing 13 flood alerts, while flood warnings were in place at Aberfoyle, in Perthshire, Ettrick Valley in the Borders, Glen Lyon and Carse of Lennoch to Lochlane in Tayside, and the Churchill Barriers in Orkney.
Network Rail Scotland said four fallen trees had affected services, with a signal failure between Stirling and Perth also understood to have been caused by the weather.
ScotRail imposed various ‘blanket emergency speed restrictions’, with services including Edinburgh to Dunblane and Glasgow Queen Street to Aberdeen, Alloa, Dundee, Edinburgh and others subject to disruption.
Avanti West Coast advised customers that they could switch their journeys to today, Sunday or Monday on routes hit by the weather.
The Met Office’s yellow weather warning was in place from 8am to 3pm in the North of Scotland and from 8am to 2pm in the West.
The storms hit a day after a Sepa report showed that heavy rain could help areas which are struggling with significant water scarcity. According to the agency, the East of Scot
‘Relatively unpleasant’
land experienced its tenth driest summer in a century, with eight of the past 12 months seeing below average rainfall.
Its report showed that while there was some recovery in the North and North-East of the country, the River Enrick, to the west of Loch Ness, has been raised to significant scarcity.
There are no weather warnings in place for the weekend, but heavy showers and winds are likely to remain.
Annie Shuttleworth at the Met Office said: ‘We are not expecting any impactful weather over the weekend, but there could be localised surface water. Winds are remaining strong and showers will be relatively unpleasant in the West.’