Sunday 1st November 2009

Townie · Sunday 1st November 2009

Oh dear me.. what a horrible dreich day it is today.. torrential rain down here when I got up this morning and also a flood at the side of the house that I had to sweep away down the drive (wonder how many times i'll need to do that today?)

Hope all Neeps up in aberdeenshire dont get this weather

wildgarlic

Pouring it down here in the Rainy City - rain kept me awake all night as it was pounding on the window and also there is a drip that I must try and locate because it sounded like a drum playing! Think it might be in the drains though so not really sure how to fix that. Oh well.

At least it stayed dry for the hallowe'en walk last night. Hope it dries up in Huntly for the rest of the celebrations there.

Diana

The rain's just arrived here (that's the torrential stuff).

No sign of the gales they've forecast... yet

andybebbington

the gales are here in peterhead just heading to pick dad up from glasgow so will drop them off on my way down
oh have that horizontal rain aswell just shout if you want it aswell

Diana

Thanks Andy, you're too kind, but we'll let you keep it. We have the stair-rod kind of rain at the moment

Ina

Is it moving north? Not too bad here yet at the moment (I'm in Aberdeen)...

Townie

There is no wind here yet... still tipping it down tho'

lachlanandmarcus

tipping down but we are due the winds tonight, peaking about 3am..lovely :-(

Ina

Orange alert for today and tomorrow... Wonderful. Wish I could stay at home, draw the curtains and pull the duvet over my head.

Definitely soup weather - am just enjoying lentil soup out of the flask - will have to do that more often, take soup in for work rather than sandwiches - and no more salads in this weather!

Smooth Hound

Ina

And guess what... My waterproofs are in the car, as usual.

Maria

Horrid here - have been indoors - although should have been in town.

Getting ready to go and see Carrot Lover doing the 'thriller' dance in the town square now. Going to have some very wet zombies me thinks!!

MJ

orange allert?

Where's that from?

Stuck in Aberdeen.
They cancelled boat.

Is it supposed to get any worse than the 60knotts we came down in?

Rather peeved.

Even more so if they're likely to cancel tomorrow too.

They're making me pay extra.

JoH

A944 westhill to Aberdeen down to one lane and passable with care
A93 westbound passable with extreme care
Westhill - Peterculter DONT EVEN TRY and littered with abandoned cars. It was about 3 or 4 foot deep in places and we just made it through (landrover)
Anderson Drive in Aberdeen at the Foresterhill crossroads closed Northbound due to flooding
Lang Stracht is just a river about a foot deep
King Street is really deep under water

Fia

MJ

down visiting friends for halloween. So no problems there.
Because they cancelled the boat, they had to transfer my booking, my cabin was no longer available, so had to pay for up grade, else no cabin.
Not doing rough water without ensuite and beds.
Got a shocked response when I questioned why I was having to pay extra when the lack of cabin was their fault not mine.

pete_inthehills

I took the horses some more hay at 6pm and our field was a paddling pool.

I guess I'll be taking more hay at 9pm and hope it lasts them through until 6am when I get up to go to work.

If I can get to work, it sounds like most of the roads around the office are flooded.

http://www.trafficscotland.org/weather/index.aspx?region=grampian

this is a good site for up to date travel/weather info.

pete
inthehills

Fia

lachlanandmarcus

Nasty nasty weather, the road through Kirkton of Skene through up to Tyrebagger and the A96 is only passable (just) by 4x4s. Lots of stuck cars and flooded houses. Police are out diverting non 4x4s via Westhill although maybe given JoHs post that might be a mixed blessing.

Have got back in one piece from the airport and ventured to the stables to check on the horses and feed them morsels of yummyness and more haylage (slimmers version for Liesel fatty and tasty Philorth for Marcus!)

Was supposed to go to choir but in the conditions I drove so slowly I didnt get back in time. not sorry will watch x factor instead! have to see Cowells face if Jedward get through.....

wildgarlic

Blimey sounds absolutely horrific. We had some rain earlier but nothing in comparison to this.

Smooth Hound

bit of a wind blowing

im a bit worried about thse thin spruces bending over.

monkey nuts

There is a single track road between my house and the nearest main road where you pass over a (usually) small stream. The stream is a huge river and has washed a car off the road!! Dread to think how bad some of the other roads are. Worst we have seen in the 4 years we have stayed here.

DiddleDeDum

wildgarlic

andybebbington

iam home at last what a day
took 12 and a half hours to do prestwick and back 4 and a half there 8 back going not to bad
two and a half dundee to aberdeen, seen many accidents and abandoned cars along the way. major hold up this side of glasgow just got past half on central reservation one car with water up past windows, then after dundee police had blocked the road and were letting one car a time through about 18 inches of water at the shallowist, then just befor brechin were they have that concrete central reservation the water was a couple of foot deep were i squeezed through, diverted trough larenckirk but still had water up to the sills on the way to rejoin the road, there was half a fied of stones and soil around the mary kirk road that was just washing of the hills could feel the power of it crossing the road as i drove through radio was reporting masses of roads closed was woundering how we wpould get up from aberdeen toll of birness was block back road from through newburgh closed rivers burst its banks mintlaw to peterhead closed ellon to new deer closed in places looked like we might have to back road it from ellon to new deer dodging flooding then head to fraserburgh then got reports thatroad was no blocked and the fraserburgh to peterhead road was closed as it was just got through at toll of birness as it had stopped raining deep flood at boddam, river ugie has burst its banks but high tide was a while of yet even saw paramedic cars and unmarked police cars with flashing lights warning off the worst floods. more rain forcast dont know were its gonna go though and the wind if blowing like mad the sea is afa choppy just glad we are home safe and dont need to go out firstthing

Ina

I saw a bit of it on my way home last night (from Aberdeen to Bervie, via Stonehaven), but thankfully I missed the worst. One car had left the road at the turnoff to Catterline; looked like they hit the floods at full speed (difficult to see there) and lost control. And something was up at the filling station just out of Aberdeen; several fire engines, police, ambulance...

But there were still plenty of idiots going full speed past me, producing masses of spray - they were ok in their bloody 4x4s, of course, but little cars like mine were totally blinded! I just hate the selfishness of drivers in these conditions.

IainC

Yeah, my wife was working yesterday and it took her well over two hours to get home (rather than the 40-odd mins it would normally have taken)... she was quite worried about not actually being able to get home and was being overly worried about the fact that she only had a couple of quid on her... she relaxed a bit when I said that I could easy book a hotel (at worst) if she couldn't get home, 'cos I could have phoned... she hadn't thought about that

She made it in the end, but sounds like only just as she had water coming over the bonnet of the car going thru' one "puddle", and I've heard from a couple of guys who know people who have "lost" cars due to the weather and trying to get home.

lachlanandmarcus

Thrawnquine

You had a real nightmare journey, Andy. Glad you made it home safely. There will always be selfish, thoughtless drivers, Ina, but there will always be courteous ones who make up for them.

Ina

lachlanandmarcus

I certainly saw some bad ones too

IainC

IMO, there are two types of 4x4 drivers... there are those who either need them to do their job or use them for what they were intended for, and then there are the "chelsea tractor" types. Generally the latter will have the "poorer driving skills".

A lot of them seem to assume that a 4x4 can go anywhere and do everything, forgetting that in most cases... everyone else have 4 wheel braking, and in a lot of cases, a smaller car will stop in a far shorter distance than a huge 2.7t 4x4.

IMO, a lot of these problems have been caused by the manufacturers themselves, by making them more car like to drive, people then forget that they are actually driving something so large and heavy and forget that they actually need to alter their driving style to suit.

That's why when you get all the bad weather, you are almost guaranteed to see one or two "soft roaders" that have been involved in accidents.

lachlanandmarcus

thankfully my Y reg LWB defender is in the farm essential category def not Chelsea tractor! tho would be nice not to have leaky footwell in winter. no ABS either.

IainC

Been debating a change in car recently anyway, but have been looking more and more at LRs. I never thought much of the newer Discovery when it came out to start with, but I'm quite liking the looks of it now, although it seems to be holding its value quite well (unfortunately).

It's more of a CT, but I liked the old disco for driving, just I wouldn't have been able to rely on it as a sole car as much due to it's age.