View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Friday 17 February 2012

Friday 17 February

An overcast day with rainy spells at time. Not cold, but that is going to change. Tomorrow, we're in for wintry showers, which will bring 6 inches of snow to the mainland. Galeforce winds are likely to bring blizzard conditions to Highland Scotland. Not a nice day for being out and about.

Snow has caused a skiing accident in Austria, involving the brother of the Dutch crown prince. Johan Friso (43) was skiing off-piste when he was buried under an avalance. It took 15 minutes for him to be extracted, and he is currently in an artificial coma in hospital, dangerously ill. Dutch news media are reporting on the incident continually. The royal family has flown to Austria to be beside the prince's bedside.

Broadband service has resumed more-or-less normality, although there was another brief outage around midday. It appears that all of Stornoway and adjacent areas were affected, with even shops and banks being cut off.