Easter Splatterday!

Windy and wet? Must be summer

IT may have been a Good Friday for most of the country – but, as summertime officially arrived this morning, it followed a wet and stormy Easter Saturday.

And as the clocks went forward to herald the start of British Summer Time, the Met Office forecast winds of up to 80mph today.

The public has been warned that Easter Day events and travel may be affected by the storms.

Last night, Cal Mac began warning passengers that sailings will be disrupted due a deepening area of low pressure tracking to the west of Scotland. Met Office spokeswoman Ellie Creed said: ‘Scotland is in line for a real mixture of bad weather.

‘High winds for the west of Scotland should ease off by breakfast time on Easter Sunday but the warning is in place for the north of the country until 1pm Sunday.

‘We are looking at possible gusts of between 75 and 80mph in the northern isles. It’s the same area of low pressure which brought such heavy rain on Saturday. During Sunday, the central belt will experience a smattering of showers, along with possible hail and thunder.’

But Ms Creed emphasised such severe weather at this time of year is not unusual, adding: ‘This can often occur when we are in transition from one season to another.’

Many people will hope to take to the roads today to attend religious events and family get-togethers. The roads network suffered extreme surface water yesterday, particularly on the M8 corridor through central Scotland.

Police Scotland took to Twitter to advise motorists of large areas of surface water across North Ayrshire. Drivers on the Forth and Tay Road Bridges were warned by Traffic Scotland to take extra care, due to high winds.

The lunchtime Flybe flight from Stornoway to Glasgow was cancelled but ScotRail reported most services were running to timetable.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency had three flood warnings in place, all in the Tayside region. They covered Innerpeffray to Bridge of Earn, Crieff to Innerpeffray and Carse of Lennoch to Lochlane. Meanwhile, heavy swell conditions caused by the high winds have been blamed for expected disruption on west coast Cal Mac sailings today.

Some services have been forced to depart early, while Easter Day travellers have been warned to expect a disrupted timetable on several routes, including sailings from Mallaig, Ardrossan and Arran.

Meanwhile, England and the south coast in particular have been put on alert for Storm Katie arriving tomorrow. This could affect people travelling back to Scotland after the Easter break.