A wet and wild start to winter
Monday 7th December 2015
The weather - and its aftermath - were the only topics of conversation last week.
It started with Clodagh, our third named storm, which passed over the Island on Sunday. We were able to do the shopping in the morning before the rain set in and the wind strengthened. This was fortunate because it was our last chance to shop before waiting around at home for a heating oil delivery early in the week. We weren’t even aware that the fairly normal winter weather in the afternoon had a name until I read about it in The Guardian on Monday morning. We congratulated ourselves on surviving unscathed in the glen after the onslaught of yet another storm - until we received a hand-delivered letter from the Department of Infrastructure in the afternoon which informed us that the road up the glen would be completely closed to all traffic and pedestrians from 09-00 on Tuesday until an “unstable tree has been removed and the area has been made safe”.
Tim phoned Manx Petroleum to let them know about the road closure and they rescheduled our delivery from Tuesday to Wednesday. Then we walked down the road to inspect the offending tree. It was a huge beech and did look rather hazardous. The roots had been torn out of the ground and the only thing stopping the tree falling onto the road was the neighbouring tree.
We walked down again the next morning to find out whether the oil tanker would be able to get up the road on Wednesday. One of the men working on the tree told us that the road would still be closed officially but that they would be allowing traffic to get through. Work had already started on cutting back the top branches of the tree - a skilled and dangerous job requiring a good head for heights.
When we got home I decided to make a start on clearing old leaves out of our stream/ditch. Bearing in mind last week’s resolution, I made the decision and stuck to it and this turned out to be more fortunate than I could have anticipated.
We walked back down the glen road in the afternoon to check on progress and on the way we met a couple going for a walk with their pet. At first glance I assumed that they had a large dog - but that only goes to show that we don’t really look at things and tend to see what we expect to see. This is the “dog” which was going for a walk.
The tree men had done an incredible job and the area had already been made safe. Most of the tree had been removed and the road was completely clear and open to traffic.
The huge trunk, which had been leaning towards the road, plus a few branches, had been left at the edge of the field. They must have used a tractor and ropes or chains to get the trunk to fall into the field.
Wednesday started with a peculiar pink tinge to the morning light. This isn’t a photoshop effect. It really did look like this.
They say that “Red sky in the morning is a shepherds warning” but in this case the sky wasn’t very red but the whole glen looked pink. It heralded an uneventful day but perhaps it was an advance warning. Our oil was delivered and then I spent a few hours working on the stream and removed most of the remaining leaves.
Thursday was wet, extremely wet. The weather system wasn’t windy enough to be given a name although it really deserved one. About two and a half inches or rain fell on our garden. There was traffic chaos all over the Island with flooded roads, landslips blocking the mountain road and a semi-collapsed bridge in lower Laxey which dumped a school bus in the river. Luckily the school children had already been delivered to their homes and the driver was advised to leave the bus before it toppled into the water. The bridge had withstood two hundred years of Manx weather, including the notorious 1930 flood but Thursday’s weather was the last straw. This photo is from the Manx Radio website.
The Auldyn River must have overflowed and filled up the glen road next to Milntown because we saw a lot of debris trapped under the fence and huge puddles in the Milntown grounds when we drove to the shops on Friday morning.
Our little stream managed to cope with all the water seeping out of the hillside above us but the main stream which flows through our neighbour’s garden on the other side of our mutual holly hedge clogged in a few places. I spent some time clearing out the section above our top fence where a couple of big stones had slipped into the ditch and blocked the flow. A bit of water had been diverted down the path above our fence, but not enough to cause any problems. Further down the stream had overflowed and water was running down the edge of our neighbour’s drive as well as the usual blockage at the bottom of the ditch which causes a minor waterfall onto the road.
So Friday was another day spent on removing wet leaves from ditches - but it would have been a whole lot worse if I hadn’t removed the bulk of the leaves before the deluge.
But the week wasn’t over yet. On Friday evening and Saturday the next storm, called Desmond, arrived with warnings of severe damage, heavy rain and structural damage. Islanders were warned to stay at home unless their journeys were absolutely essential and all the ferries were cancelled. So we stayed indoors and waited for the devastation. Luckily Desmond didn’t live up to the forecasts as far as the Island was concerned. There were a few trees down but there was less rain than expected although the wind was strong and kept going for over twenty four hours. Parts of Cumbria were not so fortunate and are still under water.
Sunday promised to be a better day with a glimmer of brightness in the east.
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