Hurricane Bawbag

I woke up at my usual time, 6am, on Thursday only to decide that I would be “Working From Home” that day. I had intended to head back from the office around lunchtime anyway as we had been forecast  inclement weather but as Radio Scotland informed me that we would be suffering very high winds (one gust measured at around 165mph) from around 10:00 I thought it best to stay at home and use the wonders of the internet to carry out an honest day’s work. As it turns out, this was a smart move and the only scars I’ve got to show for it are a partially damaged garage roof and a smashed birdhouse. I also managed to find a real use for Twitter for the first time as I used the trend #scotstorm to get a feed of information about what was happening around the country. However, some (presumably West coast) wag complained that the Americans always get a proper moniker for their crappy weather and promptly named our storm #hurricanebawbag.

For those unfamiliar with the Glasgow patter a Bawbag is the scrotum or, more commonly, a name applied to a wanton dullard or irritant – often affectionately to one’s friends or workmates at a time of particular ineptitude or incompetence. It seems rather a fitting name for some of the most powerful storms in recent years as it rather captures the dark, devil-may-care nature of Scottish humour but, for what was clearly a intended as a throwaway wisecrack, the term trended worldwide: presumably perplexing those overseas as to why a serious meteorological event should be given such a vulgar name. However, I found it quite useful. As I was meant to be supporting the computer systems of many important Scottish based institutions it was very handy being able to follow the progress of #hurricanebawbag and seeing how much of our infrastructure was being affected. This rather raises the question of why we don’t name our natural disasters in the same way that our American cousins do.

In fact, the storm had been given the official name of Friedhelm by the Free University of Berlin. I hadn’t heard of this and, given the usual naming conventions for these things, there must have been a previous five storm names this year. Now, as much as these are of interest to meteorologists, they aren’t particularly of much use to the general public unless they are advertised. Just being told about them on the weather broadcasts or BBC news bulletins should be enough. As it is 100mph gusts are not actually that unusual in Scotland but big storms like Friedhelm/Bawbag can cause great disruption and destruction. I think, for once, some credit has to go to the Scottish Government and Police as they closed schools early and the Police gave an unambiguous “DO NOT TRAVEL between 14:00 and 21:00” warning on the day. As it is, no-one died as a direct result of the storm which is as unusual as it is welcome for an extreme weather event. Anyway, the storm did produce some really rather amazing pictures:

Apparently, there is power in the wind.

This was also on the BBC Scotland website from Troon in Ayrshire.

If you live on a  Scottish housing scheme it is compulsary to have one of these things (don't believe me - try Google Earth)



This was the Clyde - there are meant to be Nuclear Submarines in there somewhere!

It’s all quite breath-taking result but I really do think we should start officially naming extreme weather events. #SnowstormFUBAR, anyone?