The Force of Nature
Liz Lister | Scottish Blethers
Scotland has really been battling the elements over the past week as first Storm Mallik and then Corrie have been wreaking havoc across the country. Climate change may be making these events a more regular occurrence, but the sheer force and power of such extremes of nature is both awe-inspiring and terrifying. Like a ship on the ocean in a ferocious storm or a night sky torn apart by a spectacular performance of lightning with accompanying thunder, the force of nature has the capacity to make you shrink into insignificance.
When it comes to weather, Scotland is douce (sedate) in temperament. The water surrounding the British Isles generally protects us from the extremes experienced in other parts of the world. Although we may be a nation obsessed with the weather, the talk is rain or shine, wind or cloud—not loss of power and communications, damage to property, and even threat to life. But the first month of 2022 seems to have changed that.
Weather forecasting has become so accurate that we can now see these events approaching and prepare. Literally batten down the hatches. There’s a sense of anticipation rather than fear—have the forecasters got it right this time? The weekend of the last days of January 2022 demonstrated that not only are they getting it right but the storms we are experiencing with increasing regularity are bringing parts of the country to a grinding halt. Thousands of homes are left without power for days on end; rail, road and ferry links are disrupted; properties damaged; insurance premiums soar; and for some, in the wrong place at the wrong time, they become the human face of the supremacy of the elements.
On January 31, I saw at firsthand the power of nature, as gales swept over the north of Scotland with gusts reaching wind-speeds of up to 100mph. In the face of such ferocity, trees fall like dominoes, and you just hope that your property isn’t at the centre of that perfect combination of wind-speed and direction. Unfortunately for us, it was. We were woken by an early morning call to tell us that one of the giant conifers in the garden of our cottage outside Aviemore had been felled and was now blocking the road. A quick dash and by the time we got there, the road had been cleared by Council workers, working flat out to clear the devastation left behind in the wake of the storm.
We were fortunate—no damage to life or property. Just a few damaged fence posts and a massive clear up job. A community swinging into action to pull together in the face of adversity, united against the elements.
