Snowfall on the west of the island - video

[curiouswombat]

I must start by saying that we live on what was the windward side during this particular snow storm - and most of the snow fell on the leeward side. We had only a couple of inches.

But this video on the BBC news site shows what it is still like on the leeward side.

The farmers on my Friends' List will want to weep, I think.

One farmer has lost almost her stock as she managed to get them into the sheds - and the weight of snow on the roofs caused them to collapse, killing alost all the stock within.

This photo, which is not one of mine, it was taken by someone about 4 miles from our house, gives you the idea;



For those of you unfamiliar with UK road signs, that one is on top of a pole at least 6 feet high. It is the worst weather we have had since 1963 - and the loss of stock is probably worse this time than it was then - lambing has been so badly hit.

Comments

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

This is horrible. :(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is really sad - in so many ways we actually were happy to see the snow; leave work or school early, children getting the sledges out and building snow men; because it was the first snow we've had all winter. Then for all those more that about 3 miles from the east coast it became a very severe blizzard very, very, quickly.

[kathyh]

Yikes! That's really serious snowfall. How terrible for the farmer who lost her stock when she thought they were safe.

There was a farmer on the Today programme this morning talking about how badly lambing was being hit. He was hoping people would buy British lamb to help farmers out.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It looks as if we may have lost up to half the year's lambs, perhaps more. Only the farms on the very northern point of the island were totally unaffected. I'm not sure we'll have enough lamb for everyone to eat local...

[shirebound]

Oh my, what a killer storm. I know this can be devastating to farmers.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is so very sad - we had had no snow at all all the rest of the winter - had it been early January there would have been so much less loss of stock.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I heard about those poor sheep, and yes, I'm heart broken for both them and the farmer. I fear there will be thousands and thousands of lives lost in this awful weather. It really couldn't come at a worst time for sheep farmers. I've only lost two lambs to hypothermia and feel bad enough about that.

Actually, the last time we had snow here deep enough to hide road signs was 26th April 1982 so the possibility of a disaster with the lambing is always in the back of my mind. Thankfully all mine are inside and we haven't had enough snow to bring down the roof.

I'm glad to know you're all OK too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've only lost two lambs to hypothermia and feel bad enough about that.

Every lamb lost is sad.

I'm glad to know you're all OK too.

I feel almost guilty - we were quite happy to have a few inches; I was able to finish work early, the children around got off school early, they were out building snowmen and so on. And yet within such a short distance it was so heavy as to be lethal.

Like you, it is always a threat - there is actually a local folk song with an opening verse

The snow's on the mountains, the snow's in the gill;
My sheep they have wandered all over the hill;
Uprise then, my shepherds, with haste let us go
Where my sheep are all buried deep under the snow.

And the last lines

They sought them with sorrow; they sought them with dread,
And they found them at last, but the sheep were all dead.

It is something of a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

That's very impressive snowfall. And you're right about the stock, they aren't used to those kind of conditions.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The local police actually posed for the first picture of this set (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-21926365) on the BBC site - to give an impression of how much snow there was, and explain why some roads were still closed...

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is so sad! How awful for her. (and the sheep) I guess this time, you are fortunate to be on the windy side.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We were very lucky indeed. It's been snowing again today - but not in the same league at all.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You had so much earlier in the year though - I'm glad for you that you have missed this lot.

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is just heartbreaking. Being born and raised in an agricultural background myself, I know just how they must feel. :(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So sad - such a loss of stock. The people are hardy - but their whole livelihood is threatened when something like this happens.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness - I hadn't even thought about the lambing!! So tragic!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Some of the farmers are now dreading the thaw. To go out to your fields and find nothing but bodies...

It all fell in about 6 or 7 hours, there was nothing most of them could do about it - it drifted so quickly they couldn't get to their fields, and they couldn't have moved the sheep in it anyway.

Easter will be very sad for the farming community almost all across the island. (Only almost - the farms near my mother's were spared almost all of it and the labs were out in the fields as usual yesterday. They will be breathing big sighs of relief.)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I'm not a farmer, but I live in a farming community so these sorts of things always hit home. Such a tragic loss for the farmers, but I do admire the grit that lady farmer showed, able to be so calm in the face of the devastating losses, and even share a laugh. Farmers have depths of stoic strength that non-farmers can only hope to emulate, really.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

She was just typical of the farming community.

They are all stunned, but pulling together. Even the lady who has lost almost all her stock in the shed collapse was saying, on the radio, how she wanted to thank everyone who helped her, "including the Department of Agriculture - even though we complain about them, and I've done my share of complaining about them - but they've been good."

It made me smile - that last remark.

A much older lady than the one in the video was actually airlifted from her cottage on Saturday - and was regarding it all as a big adventure as well as a chance to meet royalty as she said it was actually Prince William who was flying the helicopter. She was almost certainly right, as he is a Search and Rescue pilot in the squadron that covers the Irish Sea area, and so our island. But she, too, is typical of her community.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Yikes! How horrible. We had snow flurries on Sunday and Monday, but today it almost looks like spring. If one dresses warmly enough, the bright sunshine can almost make one forget that winter has not lost it grip on us yet.

Stay safe and warm. How awful about losing the livestock! Truly dreadful.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We've had such lovely sunshine for most of March - even today the sun was shining brightly - just with a few snowflakes that seemed to be coming from an almost cloudless sky.

This all fell in such a short space of time - really less than one day. Some farmers have lost almost all their livestock. It is very sad.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

The loss of stock is really heartbreaking. It is happening to so many farmers through drought and other climate change.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think it must have been such a shock. On Thursday the forecast was for 'some snow on higher ground, nothing lower down' - and then by the morning of Friday they had feet of it and it continued all day. All that remains is to wait for the thaw and then retrieve all the bodies.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That is tragic...trying to shelter her stock thy were killed anyway. That makes me want to cry.
:(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

She seems to have had six sheds, all full, and five collapsed - I think she has lost stock in the hundreds.

And, for the others, there is the soul destroying task, when it thaws, of scooping up all the bodies that will be left lying.

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

I was feeling so sorry for the farmers and sheep yesterday when they were talking about it on the news last night - to think you've got your sheep to safety and then to lose them in such a way is even sadder.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - it must have been awful to find you couldn't get to them, but even worse to get them into shelter and then to have that happen.

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

Serious stuff. Very sad. Snowfall like this is not something I associate with your island. Scotland has been badly hit in parts too - it's much the same story on Arran. Edinburgh has been freezing but dry.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

When it happens it is nearly always over to the west - as a child I can remember my grandfather taking us by car to see the snow piled up beside the road at Cronk-y-Voddy, (where the lady in the video lives) about a month after it first fell, and you could still not see over it, it was like driving between white walls.

When they were showing Arran on TV I was thinking how similar it was - but it only occurred to the BBC that our island was having similar problems a couple of days in. And it is a smaller proportion of us that are without power, of course, as we generate our own, so it is only those whose power lines have been damaged.

The loss of stock is so sad - it will be horrible to have to recover the bodies when it al thaws.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Oh that's awful! Especially that poor farmer

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

There is going to be such a horrible job, too, when it thaws - so many sheep buried.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

It's dreadful, isn't it? And as you say, it came so quickly out of nowhere - in Wales, and the Highlands, and your island, people simply didn't have time to react. We had nothing but a dusting, and that's all gone (though it's bitterly, bitterly cold) - it's just mindboggling to look at those pictures of 15-foot drifts and think What?!? Where did that come from?"

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly. The forecast the day before was for 'some snow on high ground, nothing lower down'. And we had been joking about having 'snow envy' of friends in the rest of the UK as we hadn't had any all season - until Friday.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

What I hate above all- and there's much to dislike about a March blizzard, at all levels- is the right-wing noise machine talking about how this disproves global warming: when I was first introduced to the idea, back in the seventies, and in every decade since, one of the things which has been emphasized over and over is that changes in ocean circulation were going to lead to colder, wetter weather in the west coasts between 45N to 55N.

Julia, I'd be happier if this wasn't what the models predicted: I'd prefer we all got to keep our warm oceanic influence

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh how I agree with you about the stupidity of the nay-sayers. The climatologists have been pointing out to us for a long time that climate change will give us more blizzards, more storms, ore flooding - basically more weather. And we are certainly seeing it.

Like you I would be much happier if it wasn't happening.

[wildecate.livejournal.com]

Lee posted some pics of Cronk Y Voddy which looked horrific.  I think this weather is going to knock out so many farms.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Is Lee over that side, then? It is just awful over there.

Enough snow for the children to play for a couple of days is fun - but that just... isn't.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

That's so sad. We've escaped lightly apart from freezing temperatures, but Devon is still a farming community, and such a loss is terrible.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - you'll understand. Even those of us who live in the Douglas area, where we had a few inches and nothing more, and have little to do with farming at all these days, feel it as if they are all family.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

That's just ghastly. We knew it was bad, of course, but these stories really bring it home.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Today the problems on the west of our island actually made it to the British news. A measure of how bad it is in itself, really.

Such a loss of stock is heartbreaking for the farmers - it isn't even the money as much as the fact that they have bred those sheep, cared for them, they really know them. And now they'll have to start again. Or not, if they can't afford it.

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

I grew up on a sheep farm and this story made me weep. I especially feel sad for the farmer who got her sheep into shelter, as she thought, only to have the sheds collapse on top of her stock. This is such a devastating event it is likely to make some of them walk away from their farms. My heart aches for them.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is so sad. At least the east coast and far northern farms have been spared - but some of those hill farmers to the west are going to have to rebuild a flock from almost nothing. If, as you say, they can face it.

[mummy-owl.livejournal.com]

The images of sheep being dug out of the snow even made it to french tv! I feel for the farmers, they've had a horrendous year and we'll all pay for it in higher prices in the months to come.

Hoping for a long, warm summer(but with showers)for all.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

By now, any sheep that is dug out alive is a cause for rejoicing - it is amazing that any of them are still alive now, five days after it began. And yet some of them are!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

That is soooooooooooo sad! I really wish spring would come to Europe. You all have had winter for long enough.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I feel so sorry for the farmers involved. Their whole life has just been turned upside down over a few hours. We have been lucky up until now - although it has been so cold, it has been bright and dry - this just seems to be the entire winter's precipitation in one go.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Saw this on the news tonight - hope you're both managing to stay warm.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We're fine - it's cold, but we weren't really all that badly affected - our power has been fine, our roads are clear now; it's hard to imagine, really, how bad it is only about 4 miles away.