Storm

For several days now the forecasters have been saying that we were going to be hit by a storm. It arrived last night. It wasn't as bad as they had said - at least our house is in a slightly sheltered position for the Westerly and so it hasn't been too bad.
I did venture down to the beach though and there it was quite wild. I was lucky to get today's few minutes of sunshine as in the photo, unlucky to get caught by the hail Getting hit by the hail wasn't awfully pleasant - it was hard and going fast. It was difficult both walking into the wind and going slowly with it. The worst bit however was driving there. as crossing the causeway was quite exposed with the sea breaking over it in places.
A friend on the island with a slightly geeky weather station delighted in e-mailing us to say he had just recorded a gust of 79.2 mph. Can't imagine the ferries have been running....