Saturday 27 July

It has cooled down a little since yesterday, but we're still at 20C. Went into town and it was markedly more quiet than last week, which was the last day of the Hebridean Celtic Festival. A cruiseliner, the Eurodam, passed within sight of Stornoway, but a long way out in the Minch.

A train crash in Spain, on Wednesday, killed 78 people. It is alleged that the train driver was speeding - at twice the speedlimit. I'm just wondering whether there were devices in place that automatically stop trains that are exceeding the speed limit on a stretch of track. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed or injured at Santiago de Compostela.

Friday 26 July

A very strange day, weatherwise. Although we started off with good sunshine, some enormous cumulonimbus showerclouds built during lunchtime. Just after two, a chilly downdraft heralded the arrival of a thunderstorm. That's an unusual occurrence in these islands, and something to be dreaded in summer. The Met Office rainfall radar showed very heavy rainfall, with large hail reported from Achmore and a tornado at Laxay, and another at Callanish. That's what I mean by to be dreaded. No damage was reported from the tornado; its remnant could be seen from my position, dissipating under a very large cumulonimbus slowly moving northwest, to the west of Stornoway.