View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 15 March 2012

Thursday 15 March

The weather has not changed very much this week, with mostly grey skies, some drizzle and temperatures just below 10C. Winds are fairly brisk. I am hoping for clear-ish skies tonight, as there is a fair chance of the aurora putting in an appearance at my latitude, 58 north.

On the other side of the world, Australia is bracing itself for tropical cyclone Lua. The storm, which will blow up to a category II (95 knots) hurricane, is expected to impact the Pilbara coast near Port Hedland in Western Australia on Saturday.

The parents of the children, killed in the Swiss bus crash have been shown the personal possessions and a picture of the dead body. If desired, they could also view the corpse itself. I cannot begin to imagine what they must be going through. Six of the dead were Dutch, one was German. Belgium will observe a minute's silence at 11 am local time tomorrow morning.