Extreme Weather

Late last night James heard on the news that there was severe weather warning for today but we had no idea how severe it was going to be! When we were woken this morning by "Radio Doom and Gloom" as I call Radio Scotland, the main news was that a storm was sweeping across central Scotland with winds of 80 to 90 miles per hour. The councils nearly all closed their schools or closed them early. What a strange day! In more than twenty years of teaching, the schools I have taught in have never closed until last year's Big Snow; occasionally pupils have been sent home early because of heavy snow but never ever because of wind! Our council closed all the schools to pupils, so when I got into work there were no classes to teach! I still had plenty to be getting on with, however at eleven we were all sent home! The reason we were told was that the storm was to worsen from midday onwards and the police had advised that there should be no travel. It certainly was stormy, with driving rain and huge gusts of wind, but the roads were open and it just didn't seem that different from many other stormy days that I have travelled to and from work over the years. I seem to remember regularly walking to school from the station in the 1970s leaning at a 45 degree angle against the wind! I suppose it was better to be safe than sorry; there were scary pictures on the news of a failed wind turbine with its gearbox on fire, massive waves at Largs and Helensburgh, and a school bus blown onto its side - mercifully it was empty because of the school closures. There were 165 miles per hour winds in the Cairngorms and there were trees blown down all over the place, and rail and air travel was disrupted. But it was such a strange day - I knew something would disrupt our beautifully planned prelim timetable!
While I have been writing this blog, Jack cat started chewing on a packet of Doritos that was lying open on the coffee table beside me. I told him to leave them alone but he wouldn't stop so I put my laptop aside and started to stand up to take them away from him; at this point Jack grabbed the packet with his teeth and flung it to the floor where a whole lot of doritos fell out and he started munching them - he was like a naughty toddler! Jack has been very suspicious of the windy weather, especially when the windows were rattling, and he has been enjoying watching the leaves blowing about from the safety and comfort of the back room.