Spotted this on the shipping forecast for the next 24 hours:

ROCKALL MALIN
SOUTHWEST GALE 8 TO STORM 10, OCCASIONALLY VIOLENT STORM 11 IN
ROCKALL, VEERING WEST 5 TO 7 LATER. RAIN THEN SQUALLY SHOWERS.
MODERATE OR GOOD

HEBRIDES BAILEY FAIR ISLE FAEROES
SOUTH 5 TO 7 VEERING SOUTHWEST STORM 10 TO HURRICANE FORCE 12 THEN
WEST GALE 8 TO STORM 10. RAIN THEN SQUALLY SHOWERS. MODERATE OR POOR

Quite a blow on its way for NW Scotland. The coastal forecasts are showing
winds up to force 9 with sea states high to very high.

High tide at Oban is 03:24 UTC and 3.2 metres. Not a spring tide, so
hopefully no flooding like last year.

It's been a while since I last saw seas this high, and I will be over in
that part of the world tomorrow! If I get any photographs I'll let you know.

John DH

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:34:05 -0000, John DH wrote:

Quite a blow on its way for NW Scotland. The coastal forecasts are
showing winds up to force 9 with sea states high to very high.

It's being moderately windy here for the last 24hrs or so.
Consistently above F6 (25mph mean), last couple of hours above F7
(32mph mean) with an upward trend and the pressure falling slowly.
Gusting to the mid 40's mph. Temperature has shot up, now about 8C
after being within a degree or so of 0C for the last 4 days. Couple of
mm of rain clicked up during today.

Great Dunn Fell reported F9 for 1500, F8 previously and 4C was -3C
when we where at 0C.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL. pam is missing e-mail