SCOTLAND could be in for its worst spell of weather in more that 130 years, predicts a top meteorologist.
Piers Corbyn believes magnetic forces could bring about some of the most severe weather seen for years and says the country could be subjected to the same conditions which brought down the original Tay Bridge.
Corbyn bases his predictions on the relationship between Earth and solar activity.
He has been studying weather patterns about the time of the disaster in 1879 and believes the coming months will see weather similar to that 132 years ago.
He said: “It’s all to do with the magnetic relations between the sun and the Earth, the particles from the sun and how the moon modulates them.
“We look at the last time the same things were happening with the sun, moon, Earth, solar activity and magnetic forces and use them to predict what’s happening now.
“We’ve been looking at a group of years between 1875 and 1879, when the Tay Bridge Disaster took place, to help predict the weather this year. Nothing will be identical but they will be similar enough.”
PARTICULARLY HORRIFIC
All 75 people on board a train died when it crashed into the River Tay when the bridge collapsed in high winds on December 28, 1879.
Ian Nimmo White, a member of the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Memorial Trust, says the weather that night was particularly horrific.
“The really bad weather started up at about 5pm and just gained in severity from there. The last train that crossed was the 5.50pm from Newport and it was very bad then, with passengers and crew said to be in a high state of nerves when they arrived at the station.
“In modern times it’s possible that the train would have been stopped. It was said that the gales that night were the worst in Dundee for 50 years.”
The Met Office is currently predicting normal conditions for early autumn in their 30 day forecasts.
