"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:09:56 -0000, "Col"
wrote:

Interestingly, Countryfile has just done a feature on the Cairngorm
weather station, and they said that winds of over 100mph were pretty
common. It looks a pretty desolate place though, they had to hack
their way in with an ice axe!

I was up there in 1987 and the weather station was enclosed. When a
reading was
due, it emerged, accompanied by the sound of grinding motors, stayed out
for a
little while and then disappeared into its 'box'.

Things may have changed since then.

It looked pretty similar to how you described it.
Due to the threat of icing, every half hour the instruments would poke their
heads above the parapet as it were, take their readings and then retreat
into their warm box.

As an aside, I've done a little digging and Cairngorm has recorded a
windspeed of 150 *knots* not 150mph as I supposed.
That's 170mph, must have been quite a gale!
This is also the British record, on 20th march 1986.
--
Col

Bolton, Lancashire
160m asl