The Weatherman Says .....

Notes from a North Sea Island

I woke up to snow today. Well, it's just a light covering here in town, but it's snow nevertheless. It came silently overnight, like gentle angel tears. As I drew back the curtains to see what the day was like an unfamiliar glow greeted me as I looked down from my bedroom window. While I have been writing the white stuff has been falling again, quite thick now, but lasting only a few minutes at a time. The sun has actually bothered to get out of bed this morning, so in between the brief snow showers it struggles to bless us with a few feeble rays. Then the sky suddenly goes dark and murky again before the next lot snow flakes float down to the ground, kissing on route the cheeks of anyone who happens to be out, going about their daily business.

Today is just a normal day in these parts. The rubbish is being collected, cars are travelling along the damp streets again, some of them much too fast for safety in the present conditions and the postie in his van has just delivered a package to the house next door.

The schools are off for another week, I think, and in the outlying areas, where the snow is probably already thicker on the ground, children will be out in gardens and fields, trying to build snowmen with varying degrees of success.

The climate in Orkney is generally fairly temperate thanks to the Gulf stream that runs not far from these shores. Temperatures rarely drop below freezing in the winter and any snow usually only lasts a few days. We have a high rainfall, however, due to a combination of the low level of the land and the warming effect of the surrounding sea.

In recent years we have had two particularly harsh winters. Arctic winds from the north caused heavy snow fall and strong winds made drifting a real problem, particularly outside the towns. In 1995 it was so bad that Orkney was effectively cut off from the rest of the world, since the Airport was shut for a week and the ferries were unable to operate for several days. The roads were icy and treacherous for weeks and the gritters were simply unable to cope. The winter of 2001 was another bad one. During this season the schools were forced to close for about a week. Of course the children didn’t mind. They were able to take full advantage of the winter wonderland all around them. Kirkwall Airport came to a standstill for three days.

January and February are the worst months of the year. Somehow the fact that the days should be getting longer by now doesn’t always alleviate the sense of gloom and doom that the weather seems to bring along. I am not a meteorologist, but I have the feeling that this time we might be spared from too much winter misery after the New Year.