mistyqueen

In the last 24 hours I've had over 67mm of rain. Top wind speed yesterday was a mere 49.9 mph. Power stayed on, thankfully! The huge lochs that appeared in our garden have vanished overnight. Wet and windy all week though, but looks like a bit of a change next weekend!

Well, that was an interesting drive back from Inversnecky! Really wild going through Cluanie, we were praying that the bridge wouldn't be closed. Big cheers from our car as we rounded the bend at Kyle to see the ominous notice 'Skye Bridge closed..... To high sided vehicles!!!' Whoop Whoop! The drive from Kyleakin to home was, to say the least, rather damp! The wind was forcing rain in the car doors, waterfalls were pouring over the car thereby forcing yet more water into the car. Biggest gust we've had here is a measly 39.8mph and we've had 5.3mm of rain in the last hour. Humungous puddles in the garden. Fire is on, so is the power. Don't know how long we'll have leccy for, but again, I'm praying it'll stay on. Stay safe everyone, and make sure you have a decent supply of candles to hand!

Drove to Inverness yesterday morning through sleet and snow, lowest temp -1c. Drove home through sleet and rain, highest temp yesterday evening 12.6c. Dropped again to 5.5c today. Tomorrow we have to head to Snecky again and will be comong home on Friday afternoon. By the time we reach Skye Bridge wind speeds will be well and truly ripping up. I sincerely hope there will be a downgrade and the bridge will not close as we do not fancy staying in Kyle for any longer than we have to! Best take a couple of sleeping bags along with us just in case!

Nae Snaw, nae ice, but still very cold. I'm off to light the stove and feed the chooks and ducks. Rain coming in by the look of things.

Well, we did have a few flurries of the white stuff, but it's been mainly sleet and hail. The OH informed me that we had a thunder and lightening storm during the night which explained why the alarm clock was flashing like billy oh this morning. I never heard a thing! Must have been in a really deep sleep. It is cauld though, needless to say I'm not very far from the fire. I hope the roads stay clear though as we're heading to Snecky on Tuesday to do the dreaded Chrissy shopping. I also see we're in for another wee puff or two next weekend. Welcome to winter, eh?

Over the last few days we have had rai, hail, sleet, strong winds, freezing temps but nae Shaw! Temp here currently 3.3c with lightish winds. Aaaaaaand....central heating broken down again! Booooooooo!

Dull, dreich, damp and cold here, as it was yesterday. And there is no such thing as too many Jaffa Cakes! However, several packets of Tunnocks Caramel Logs along wi' a bucket o' tea is highly acceptable. Failing that, several Chunky Kit Kats will also do the trick!

Morning all! Cauld and dreich here this morning, rain just started. Not looking great for the rest of the week either. Ach well, could be worse, but at least it now feels like winter!

Light rain here now, temp up to a tropical 4.1c. But the best news is............I have central heating again!!!!! Whoop! Whoop! All praise to the Central Heating Gods and fairies!

Nice pics of the Wee County Peborant. I used to live there and loved to see the Ochils turning white! Nae snaw here at all, but the OH kindly informed me at 12.30 when he came in from the local music session that ' it's all white out there!' So we had some snow in the wee small hours. Absolutely Baltic though, lowest temp last night was 0.2c. BBRRRRRRR!

Hee Haw in the way o' white stuff up here. Wind has picked up a bit and temp falling. Lowest so far tonight was 1.4c. A few excitable peeps on here tonight, lots of smiles by the morning and a few snowmen too I'd imagine!

We currently have clear blue skies and the temp has dropped from a positively blistering 5.6c around about 9.30 to 4.4c. After checking various forecasts if now looks as if we won't be seeing any of the white stuff here, its more likely to be sleet and rain, which is really what I expected. Enjoy the white stuff those of you who get any!

Morning Snow Lovers! Cloudy and cool here today, currently 4.4c, pressure 1000. I sense a little excitement stirring on this forum, I do hope peeps aren't going to be too disappointed if/when the snow does/doesn't arrive. I'm refusing to get excited because some forecasts say rain and some say snow, which means either sleet or hail, but probably NAE snaw! Enjoy it when it comes folks!

Afternoon all! Had some horizontal rain on the way back from Portree a wee while ago. Patches of blue sky beginning to peep through. Currently 9.8c but looking at those charts it looks like it'll be minus 9 by the weekend! And the central heating is still not working!!! We had hot water coming through the system on Sunday which gave us some hope.... but it was silly to get our hopes up! However, the cavalry will be arriving on Saturday ( or so I am assured! ) as the OH just can't pinpoint the problem. Thankful that we have a wee stove in the kitchen and an open fire in the sitting room, so we won't exactly freeze, but it would be comforting to know that we had heat through the rest of the house and wouldn't have to worry about burst pipes! Stay cozy folks!

Been a blustery kind of day upnhere, not too cold, a few beefy showers passing through. Looks like it'll be a bit nippy by the weekend with white stuff for some. There's gonna be a few smiley faces on here come Saturday I think!

Afternoon peeps! Dull, dreich and very mild up here today. Getting breezy too and it looks as if tomorrow will be a tad on the breezy side. We'll see what the week throws at us as far as cold is concerned, but I doubt we'll see any white stuff where we are.

Boyzoboyzoboyz has that temperature dropped! Currently 2.8c and we've just had a heavy hail shower too so the hills have an even heavier white coat on them! Praise be for woodburners!

Morning all from a relatively calm Skye! Well, last night passed without power failure or toppling of trees chez Mistyqueen. It's a wee bit blustery just now but the main feature is the plummeting temperature, currently 4.7c. Aaaaaaaannnndd.......there's snow on them thar hills! Just a wee dusting, but that coupled with the cauld tells me that winter is definitely here! I believe that most of the Western Isles are without power just now, and I don't know what the wind speeds came in at over there, but here's hoping they're all connected soon.

Strongest gust I've had here is 57.3mph and that was at midday! It quietened down significantly during the afternoon but the winds have picked up again.

Afternoon peeps! Well, I've not long returned from dropping off our visitor at Kyle station. Fortunately the bridge was still open, and so far as I'm aware, it still is. Our biggest wind blast here so far is 57.3 mph and it's now raining. The fun and games won't really kick in until maybe around 5 o'clock and will very likely continue till the wee small hours. Passed loads of SSE vans on the way to Kyle and saw one guy shimmying up a pole on the way home. Who'd have their job, eh? Spent the main part of the morning making sure that everything that could possibly fly off has been made secure, topping up coal and wood buckets and charging batteries. All we can do now is wait and hope it doesn't turn out as bad as is forecast.

Thanks for posting all the charts and info here. I for one appreciate it. Looks like I'll be getting a fair skelp o' the wind later, but not nearly so badly as Cookie will! take care all you folks out on the Western Isles! Get those hatches battened down and make sure you have plenty of batteries and candles to hand!

Mornin' all! Light rain and winds for the moment as we await the arrival of Abigail! Temp 8.5c, pressure 1003.

Well,that was an interesting night! Hail, thunder and lightening and then the clearest of skies and bucketsful of stars! That was nice while it lasted. Mild here just now, calm and raining. I await the arrival of Abigail and wonder how much damage she will do! Need to trim the wicks on my oil lamps, check supply of batteries, make sure candles and tea lights are close to hand. Better tie as much down in the garden too, put stuff away in the sheds etc. Ach well, it may not turn out as bad as predicted, at least, I for one hope it won't! Catch ya'll later!

Morning all! After several days without internet connection (thank you BT!), we are back online. I have spent many hours on the phone to them and I know I am not alone. The service to the Highlands and Islands, no matter who your provider is, is truly cr*p! I'll be looking for a refund from them, as our current internet speed is....wait for it....a massive 0.95G. Wowsers. Not! I have to laugh at those ads on the telly that promise you 4g. Ahahahaaaaaaa! Not a chance up here! Anyhoo, another damp, dreich and murky day ahead. Anemometer being moved toady to a higher fence post, just in time for the arrival of Abigail. Still no central heating yet despite a new time clock, new thermostat and the clearance of a lot of muck from the boiler. It fired up yesterday and for all of five minutes we had warm radiators, then it cut out again and we are back to square one. Himself will have a consultation with his friendly local heating engineer and will have another tinker up in the loft tonight to see if he can solve the problem. Fingers crossed! Best get everything tied down outside today and charge up some batteries, just in case!

Central heating being fixed today ( hopefully! ), so that surely means that the temperature will now plummet. Ach well, a girl can dream. It's been so mild here I've not needed the heating on anyway, the fire in the sitting room sufficient at the moment. From what I've seen of forecasts for the next week or so, not much is going to change so the heating can stay off and I can save the oil for when it's really needed!