Storm Eowyn

On Friday, like much of the UK, we in Perthshire were visited by Storm Eowyn.

In our area, we had an amber warning for strong winds (expected to gust between 60-80 mph) – though there were red warnings (representing a potential danger to life) across much of Scotland. Having experienced Storm Arwen in 2021, from which we lost 5 trees and were without power for hours, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect – but it was still equal parts scary and impressive.

Sadly, Storm Eowyn finished what Storm Arwen started for the beautiful cherry tree on the east side of the front lawn – but aside from that, we only had one other tree casualty (a large sycamore on the edge of the back paddock). We were also lucky to only have lost power for about half an hour; one of the villages nearby has been without since the storm and is hoping to have it restored later tonight or tomorrow.

When we lost power, we did venture outside briefly to make sure there weren’t any trees down on the power lines. Chris didn’t want me to go any further up the drive without a hard hat (he wore his chain sawing helmet 😹), so I stayed back and took a few videos of the wind noise. One thing I found really astonishing was the physical force of the gusts – there were genuinely moments when I was barely strong enough to step forward into the wind; it makes it easy to imagine how those unfortunate stories about people and doggos getting swept over a cliff by the wind occur…

Here’s one of the clips I took:

I don’t think the video does the experience justice, to be honest. Standing outside in the wind, it felt like the wind was absolutely roaring at you – and that was with the benefit of all of the shelter our trees provide! Just think – this is only the noise and wind that hadn’t been blocked by the outer trees! Chris said that the noise and wind strength grew exponentially as he went further up the driveway. I would have liked to have seen it, but even he (with his hard hat 👷‍♂️) turned back quite quickly because he thought it was too dangerous.

The power came back on shortly after we retreated inside, and we whiled out the remainder of the storm tucked up in the study with the kitties and a nice hot fire, listening to the wind howl and feeling ever so grateful that we didn’t have to be out in that weather.

Fingers crossed you are all safe and warm following the storm as well! 💙