Hurricane Bawbag

The Scots, and indeed those of us in Northern Ireland, are battening down the hatches in the face of horrendous storms. The locals have nicked named it Hurricane Bawbag, though the pesky Germans are calling the depression Friedrich.

However, I'm hearing of blackouts in the North of Ireland (Donegal, Derry and Antrim) as well as Dumfries and Galloway, Clyde and Central Scotland. But it doesn't stop there being a little bit of humour to lighten the mood. The hashtag #HurricaneBawbag top trended not just in the UK but World wide.

Although it appears to have blown away Sky News's atlas, because they say (see above) that "In Northern Ireland, Malin Head was hit by steady winds of 58mph and gusts of 80mph." Malin Head may well be wear generations of my ancestors lived, fortunately with a bank of earth sheltering them from the Atlantic winds. It may well be the most northern point in Ireland, but it is not in Northern Ireland.

There are rumours circulating that Hurricane Bawbag may just be Sir Alex Ferguson still going through post-game analysis with his players after yesterday's Champion League performance. But it appears that the storm may also be making a bit for Olympic trampolining gold as it has been gathering equipment.



Of course even when the lights are oot there is still a guitar that can be played and a Bob Dylan classic that is calling out to be rewritten.



Update while the mainstream media shied away from using the term Eddie Mair did ask should he use in on the PM programme on Radio 4. In the words of a famous Scot Magnus Magnusson he however started but did not finish reading out the Wikipedia page entry. Apparently scrotum is not acceptable language in drivetime, though bawbag was.

Philip Schofield also fell foul of trying to anglicise the term later in the evening. When he tweeted:

Just looking through my timeline! Scotland! Are you ok? And who thought to call the hurricane ball bag?!!

For hours he was getting people correcting him or telling him to get his Glasgow Accent out or check with Lorraine Kelly or John Barrowman on how to pronounce it.

However, the SNP's Rob Gibson MSP did give Bawbag a namecheck on Scotland Tonight

From the Tropics of Positive Temperatures

Boy it feels warm!

And according to the BBC weather forecast it is dipping back to zero as I type. So of course it is not actually warm, but when Edinburgh was up to about 4C today it is comparatively warm. Of course it doesn't help that I am wearing exactly the same number of layers as I did when it was -10C or thereabouts heading to and from work. That is quite a differential in temperature from Friday to today.

Of course one thing this means is that the thaw is on. Walking past some of the ponds that were taking human weight earlier they are now cracking up and would not do so now. Of course there is still plenty of ice and snow around, because we have had an awful lot of it. This morning some of that had melted yesterday but frozen again overnight. So with temperatures dropping below zero again overnight be careful driving or walking again in the morning.

My next guess is how long the 5 foot pile of ploughed ice at the end of my street is going to last from now.

Tornados Spotted on the Forth

Well It appears that the Firth of Forth was a scene of interest yesterday.

No not because rampaging masses (or just Hoonitt) were able to skate across from Queensferry to his North Queensferry home and demand a secret ballot. Not there were two 600ft high water spouts spotted by the coastguard.

Meanwhile British Waterways Scotland has warned people to keep of the ice covered Union Canal. The canal which runs from Edinburgh to Falkirk via Broxburn and Linlithgow is currently very tempting seeming covered in ice and in some places there are footprints in the snow. However, it is dangerous to do so and although nobody has yet been reported to have fallen through the ice with changing weather conditions all the time the integrity of the ice cannot be guaranteed to hold up.

Tornado hits Torbay...

...no not Adrian "Biffer" Sanders return from conference this.