Storm Floris: A Mighty Wind

We went out on a beautiful sunny morning for a walk. It was a bit breezy, but the sky was a fresh-scrubbed blue, and it was hard to imagine anything bad happening. Perhaps, like a lot of these things, Storm Floris would be a bit of a to-do about nothing? Whenever there is a bit more wind, snow, rain or sun forecast than usual, we've all gotten inured to dire warnings to stay indoors, not travel unless strictly necessary, etc. Storm Floris was all over the news for days beforehand, but it's just weather: how bad can it be?

At the start of the walk:

As we continued on, things picked up. The road was strewn with branches. A tree waved, a large broken branch dangling dangerously over the road. We dodged past this and reached the beach. Here, the wind was scouring up a sandstorm, the coastal forest a whipping mass of leaf and wood...

 

Too much! Let's go home.

At this point the sky blackened, torrential rain started, and the storm *really* hit. We cowered in our waterproofs, soon breached. It was a relief to reach our car, buffered and battered as we drove back, wipers at full pelt. I've been up hills in 60mph winds, and its a bit much. 80mph winds subject us to two and a half times the force, and this, apparently, was the windspeed at low level today. (On the Cairngorms, winds reached 124mph. In summer.)  But what was this? The road to our holiday cottage was blocked by fallen trees. We had to find another way of reaching shelter.

 

Hmm. Maybe this time, we should have stayed indoors after all.