Slide rule in its box used for Met Office observations
Slide rule used to calculate vapour pressure, humidity and dew point from dry & wet bulb temperature readings by Lachie MacLean, Druimfraoich, when he was a Met Office observer on Tiree. In its original green cardboard box. The data would be used to make weather forecasts.
Key to Met Office weather symbols. Laminated sheet used by Lachie MacLean, Druimfraoich, when he worked as a Met Office observer on Tiree.
Click here to view 2009.11.2
Black and white photograph of a Halifax from 518 Squadron in 1944.
Halifax P (Mk 2-1A LK966) of 518 Sqadron on Tiree just before take-off on its historic flight on 1st June 1944. The weather report from that flight was responsible for delaying D-Day from the 5th to 6th June.
Met. Office tracing of the 1968 storm
Scanned image of the Met. Office tracing of the 1968 storm
Although relatively mild in the winter and cool in the summer, Tiree experiences extremes in other weather conditions. Since records began, the sunniest day occurred on 9th July 1936 with the island basking in 16.8 hours of sunshine.
The wettest day was 15th September 1944 with 74.6 mm of rainfall and the driest month was August 1947 with only 4.1 mm of rain. The previous record for the windiest day – 118 mph on 15th January 1968 – was exceeded on 11th January 2005 when the anemometer at the Met. Station broke at a wind speed of 124 mph.
There was considerable damage to a number of coastal roads, some being submerged in several feet of water at the height of the storm, and the passenger walkway at Gott Bay pier was ripped from its mountings.
Casan fon grèin
Photograph of sunbeams streaming below clouds over Tiree.
In the Statistical Account of 1845, Rev Neil MacLean observed that the weather on Tiree ‘is frequently so variable as to be almost proverbial, and baffle the most sagacious prognosis.’ Before reliable forecasting, the livelihoods and lives of many crofters and fishermen were dependant on their knowledge of weather lore.
Traditional knowledge about the weather is a mixture of superstition and acute observations of the sky and the natural world. People on Tiree used to judge the weather by the movement of birds, changes on the lochs and in the colours in the sky, and by looking at other islands.
One of the signs of windy weather to come is the appearance of sunbeams streaming beneath the clouds known locally as ‘casan fon grèin’, literally ‘legs under the sun’.
Colour photograph of `casan fon grein`.
‘Casan fon grèin’, sunbeams streaming below the clouds which, according to local weather lore, is a sign of windy weather to come.
Newsletter `An Tirisdeach`, No. 338, 5/3/2005.
Local news and events including the Argyll & Bute Planning Design Award, CalMac sailings and tendering, weather ersoion, farmers` markets at the Rural Centre and news from Tiree Heritage Society, Tiree Environmental Action & Recycling, the school and the RSPB.
Newsletter `An Tirisdeach`, No. 335, 22/1/2005.
Local news and events including photos of the storm damage, the visit of Coll headteacher to Downing Street, Community Council report, an update from the Tiree Development Partnership and news from the SWRI, youth club, the Christmas Parties Committtee.
CD Pròiseact Thiriodh CD-SA1968-37.
Donald Sinclair (Dòmhnall Chaluim Bhàin) of Balephuil sings a lament, a lullaby and a song about a wedding, talks about his great-grandfather, ghosts, fairies and fairy dogs, sings a sailor’s song, the weather, fishing grounds, tells a fairy story, talks about Tiree peat bogs in the Ross, strange happenings, the Balemartine area, sings a Gaelic songs, tells a story about William Ross’s broken heart and sings a love song.
Mini-disk SA1968/37.
Donald Sinclair (Dòmhnall Chaluim Bhàin) of Balephuil sings a lament, a lullaby and a song about a wedding, talks about his great-grandfather, ghosts, fairies and fairy dogs, sings a sailor’s song, the weather, fishing grounds, tells a fairy story, talks about Tiree peat bogs in the Ross, strange happenings, the Balemartine area, sings a Gaelic songs, tells a story about William Ross’s broken heart and sings a love song.
CD Pròiseact Thiriodh CD-SA1974-77.
Hector Kennedy of Kilkenneth talks about the first electric torch on the island, weather forecasting, using burning peat as a torch, Donald Kennedy – Rìgh na Mòintich, Land Leagues, Rev. MacNiven, the occupations of his family, crofting, kelp, food, the shops, Anna Dhuireach and describes two farmers.
