REMEMBER that mid-week weather bomb?
Well, it wasn't a weather bomb. Far from it.
Weather forecasters say the so-called "weather bomb" that hit Scotland was a "cry wolf" alert that they fear may result in people ignoring genuine warnings of much more serious weather conditions.
The Met Office is concerned that the strong gales that hit the UK on Wednesday were wrongly described, and have blamed it on social media.
It said that the actual effects on Scotland and the rest of the UK were weaker than more damaging storms seen in recent years, although the gales that hammered Scotland's west coast and far north were still worthy of "be prepared" warnings - thousands of lightning strikes, which caused numerous power cuts, were seen during the storms.
According to the Met Office, the real weather bomb actually struck Greenland and that Scotland and the rest of Britain only felt the after-effects. Scotland failed to get the strongest winds associated with a weather bomb and conditions were, in the end, "nothing unusual" for the time of year.
The strongest gust clocked in at 144mph on the St Kilda islands, while 82mph was recorded on South Uist in the Western Isles. More generally, northwestern parts of the UK were getting winds in the 70mph-80mph range, classed as a strong gale.
Helen Chivers of the Met Office said: "If the term 'weather bomb' is being used too often and is being used incorrectly scientifically, then you could possibly see that people won't pay attention to warnings, so it is important it is used in the right context and the right time.
"The Met Office won't be saying every time there is a storm coming that it is a weather bomb. It was first mooted on social media on Monday by [a member of the media].
"It wasn't a weather bomb over Britain. We were on the fringes of it. We have been trying to make it clear that the system is a very long way from the UK and what it has brought us is winter weather which we put an amber warning out for."
"Weather bomb" is a meteorological term for a more powerful, more intense version of the kind of Atlantic low pressure systems that normally affect the UK.
The Met Office says these "cyclogenesis events" occur where dry air from the stratosphere flows into an area of low pressure. This causes air within the depression to rise very quickly and increases its rotation, which in turn deepens the pressure and creates a more vigorous storm. They tend to occur most frequently over sea near major warm ocean currents, for example, over the North Atlantic ocean near the gulf stream or over the Western Pacific ocean near the Kuroshio current.
Recent estimates based on a 20 to 30-year dataset suggest there are somewhere between 45 and 65 explosive cyclogenesis events across the world every year, with many occurring in the northern rather than the southern hemisphere.
The Met Office believes the rise of the "weather bomb" term is the result of misinformed social media discussion.
Chivers said: "Obviously we would say a low pressure is going through and it is rapidly deepening, but it doesn't capture people's imagination. By putting a hashtag in front of the phrase 'weather bomb', it gave it a catchy title I suppose and captured the imagination on social media and then in the press and then on TV as well.
"We will see winter storms that don't have the same ingredients that may well give bigger impacts and where the winds will be higher, but won't have developed in the same way metereologically speaking."
In Aberdeenshire, about 20 vehicles got stuck in icy conditions on the Banchory to Fettercairn road. A gritter was sent and the vehicles were later freed.
A string of ferry services were cancelled, including Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Tobermory to Kilchoan, Ardrossan to Brodick, Kennacraig to Islay, and Stornoway to Ullapool sailings. Stena Line services from Cairnryan to Belfast were cancelled after a ferry collided with part of the southwest Scotland terminal.
Off the west coast, waves averaged between 14 and 15 metres (around 45ft-50ft), with some considerably higher. At one point, the biggest waves in the world were reportedly off the coast of Oban.
The Stromness lifeboat escorted a Spanish fishing boat to safety after it was hit by a large wave off Orkney.
At the peak of the latest problems, around 30,000 homes lost electricity, while a further 27,000 were cut off following lightning strikes on Thursday morning. Hundreds of engineers worked through the night to restore supplies across the Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney and rural areas, only for later lightning to cause additional disruption. All schools, nurseries, libraries and council sports facilities in the Western Isles were closed.
Lightning struck 5000 times across the Western Isles and northern Scotland over a two-day period during the stormy weather, according to Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD).
It confirmed yesterday that bolts struck six wooden poles on the transmission network on Skye, causing region-wide power loss across the Western Isles on two occasions.
Alan Broadbent, director of engineering at SHEPD, said: "We prepared for the storm with hundreds of additional staff and resources. We knew that lightning would be a feature of this so-called weather bomb but predicting the intensity and frequency of strikes is almost impossible.
"We have equipment that can protect against lightning strikes. However, every so often a strike is too intense for even the most advanced level of protection."
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