The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
as lightning cracks sky
where in the country was recorded in Harris, where more than an inch (31mm) of rain fell in 14 hours from 1am until 3pm.
A Met Office spokesman said more than half the rainfall (29.4mm) occurred in a single hour between 4am and 5am yesterday morning. Aviemore was only slightly behind over the same period with the second highest with a rainfall of 29.4mm over the 14-hour period.
Transport was largely unaffected, although signalling problems affected train travel south and east from Inverness.
SHEPD said that the bulk of the electricity failures were in central Scot land and the north-east - although they engineers on duty across the country.
Dale Cargill, director for customer operations at SHEPD, said: “We were prepared for the bad weather and our engineers have been working hard to repair customer supplies and they will remain in the worst hit areas to make sure any homes or businesses without power are restored at the earliest opportunity.
“If anybody has concerns for their own safety, or the welfare of their friends or family we would encourage them to contact us and we’ll do everything we can to help them."
Aspokesman for the Met Office said that the worst of the storms would clear the mainland overnight but said that heavy showers were likely to continue in the northern isles this morning.
Today is expected to be “generally sunny” and remaining warm, though cloud will gather from the west later on, with some rain in Argyll and Lochaber.
More heavy showers are expected on Friday, particularly in the west and central areas of the Highlands, with the whether remaining warm but unsettled throughout the weekend.
“Our engineers have been working hard to repair customer supplies”
SIR, – It amazes me how long a decision can take in terms of capital expenditure here in Scotland.
Returning from a trip to England, it seems that the country has had the benefit of decisions in favour of multi-carriageway road building since the first motorway was built.
There are countless dual carriageways and motorways across the country, all either making the journey easier or trying to help. I followed motorway and dual carriageway all the way to Aberdeen, then home to Inverurie where, for the most part, it stops – why? It would appear that apathy set in many years ago.
We talked about the AWPR when I started work in the early 70s, but I learned yesterday that it was talked about in the 50s ...that's 60 years of talk.
Now we have action and I've retired. What benefit is it to me now? It's the same with dualling Aberdeen to Inverness, nothing. Yet, travel on what would appear to be much less-used roads in England is easy in many places because of dualling. Many of the decisions and the will to do anything with our congestion is pathetic. Now look at the chaos when the decision-makers have finally decided to do something.
Derek Logan, Whiteley Well Drive, Inverurie.