Monday 14 January

A day of fast changing cloudscapes as a plethora of showers came through the area. At one stage, a dozen different anvil clouds lined the horizon all round. If anything did fall in Stornoway it was of rain. Elsewhere in Scotland, falls of snow were reported. Further south, in England, heavy falls of snow caused problems, but nothing major.

Just before 4pm, a man fell from a cliff in Point, near the village of Swordale, after he tried to retrieve a ram that had also fallen. The man, in his forties, fell 70 feet to a shingle beach at the bottom. RNLI and Coastguard helicopter attended and took the man to hospital in Stornoway, a few miles to the west. Latest reports indicate that he unfortunately died of his injuries. People have been reminded of the dangers of cliff edges, particularly in wet and windy conditions.

It was reported today that the Scottish government have earmarked £1 million for the restauration of the country's 5,000 war memorials. A million pounds sounds like a lot, but divide it by 5,000 and you're left with an average of £200 per memorial. Bearing in mind that some of them are not in a good state, the sum leaves something to be desired, I'd imagine. Lewis has nearly two dozen memorials, most of them erected in the past 20 years. Even those will need to be touched up, as the paint has suffered in the harsh Hebridean weather.