SCOTS battered by fierce storms in recent weeks should brace themselves for worse to come, according to a top weatherman.
Piers Corbyn, an astrophysicist and long-range weather forecaster, predicts the country will be at the mercy of two more extreme storms before the month is out.
And he says they could be fiercer than the now-notorious storms of the last few weeks.
He predicts that in addition to gale-force winds, Scotland will suffer snow, hail and sleet adding to the misery of those who are already counting the cost of previous storm damage.
He said: “The weather will be just as disruptive, if not worse, between January 11 and 13 as it was during the first week of the month.
“Englandwill probably be more affected than Scotland with winds of over 80mph in some parts.
“The wind will be stronger in England but it will be colder in Scotland and so could bring sleet, hail and snow north of the border.
“We’re then expecting another significant storm on either January 25 or 26.
“There will be winds of more than 80mph with snow and hail turning to sleet later.
“It will hit the west coast of Scotland and Northern Ireland more than anywhere else.”
Piers, who runs a forecasting company called Weather Action, said he had based his calculations for the storms on solar activity.
Phenomenal
He said: “The recent storms have been caused by specific sun-Earth magnetic situations.
“This solar activity upped the storm intensity and confounded the Met Office.
“We are able to identify moments in the past when there was a similar type of situation.
“Interestingly in January 1990 there were also some phenomenal storms which were among the first predictions I made.
“I think some of the storms we are now seeing are similar to those in 1990 and also storms in the 60s and 70s.
“If the Met Office issue details of upcoming wind speeds, my advice would be to incease those speeds by about 20%”
On December 8 Scotland was ravaged by a storm dubbed Hurricane Bawbag.
Winds as high as 165mph were recorded and transport routes were in chaos as tree branches came crashing down onto train lines and roads.
About 150,000 Scottish households suffered power cuts as electricity cables were brought down by falling trees.
Flights at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were cancelled and a wind turbine near Ardrossan burst into flames in the high winds.
Less than a month later more storms, which some dubbed Cyclone Bampot on Twitter, struck the country causing another wave of chaos.
In Edinburgh winds topped 100mph, with a gust of 102mph being recorded on the city’s Blackford hill.
Scotland’s main train services suffered disruptions, with the majority of Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen connections closed. Arriva Buses also cancelled all of its Scottish services.
Both the Tay and Forth Bridges were closed after winds of almost 100mph were recorded.
Insurance firms have been swamped with claims and the winds are estimated to have cause millions of pounds worth of damage.
The Met Office came in for severe criticism after it underestimated the strength of the winds.
The weather organisation, which provides forecasts to the Scotish Government, did not upgrade its weather warning from amber to red until some areas of Glasgow had already suffered gusts of 91mph.
