Well we have officially had gales for nine days straight. The average for January is seven days of gales, however they are not normally together at the start. To be fair in 1993 there were 19 days of Gales.
On the 5th January the MV Braer ran aground off Sumburgh and released 87,000 tonnes of crude oil. She was carrying twice the amount as the Exon Valdes. Therefore people feared the worst. By some stroke of luck. The storm that added to the accident also saved us. By all account’s the motion of the waves and wind emulsified the oil.
We did get oiled beaches, but not what was expected.
Friends who lived up here smelled the oil on the wind 50 odd miles away. They were out checking theirs and their neighbours fuel supplies as they thought they had developed a leak.
I remember watching things unfold on the evening news.
Bogenwald 
out of curiosity, what constitutes a “gale”, as we generally don’t use that word much in the US.
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So it’s the Beaufort scale https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/beaufort-wind-scale roughly 40mph upwards to 55mph which is gale and strong gale. We were into the 60-65 mph bracket at the worst. The strongest recorded gust this winter was 89 mph down in Sumburgh. The measure is, from what I remember, an average recorded wind speed over a ten minute period. Whatever the actual speed sometimes I went, at speed, where the wind wanted me to go.
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Ah yes, gale force winds, we hear this term with tropical storms and hurricanes. I would guess with you living in a more maritime area, those type wind speeds could get high quickly!
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You are most correct Eric.
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That is pretty windy. I’m a fairly big lad but I have been blown of my feet once… it was an ‘interesting’ experience but one I’ll happily not happen again.
An average of 65mph is rather windy.
Cheers,
Pete.
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