There is a very stormy spell of weather to come for much of northern UK over the coming days. Already the Met Office have two yellow gale warnings in force for today and tomorrow covering large areas of the country and it is turning stormy up here already. Next week continues the theme of very unstable conditions so maybe a seperate thread is in order.

A wild week coming up for you Martyn, keep us posted on conditions. The Met Office have been kind enough to forecast gales IMBY today: "Southerly winds strengthening, gales towards Fife Ness and Arbroath."

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/ta/

Increasingly wild and it is lashing it down something rotten. Gusts already topped 70mph here. A87 Skye Bridge closed to high siders and just about every Calmac ferry is either disrupted or cancelled.

Shulista, Isle of Skye, Lat: N57:41:20 (57.688757) Lon: W6:19:06 (-6.318203), 40m ASL
Weather readings @ 09:51 on 14-12-2013
======================================================

Relative Pressure: 991.0 hPa & falling very rapidly

Wind (Now): 22.1 m/s (49.4 mph) Force 9, Severe Gale
Gust (Now): 29.9 m/s (66.9 mph)
Wind (Ave today): 12.1 m/s (27.1 mph)
Gust (Max today): 31.3 m/s (70.0 mph) @ 09:19
Wind Direction: NNE - 22.5°

Temp (Now): 8.9°C
Temp (Avg today): 6.9 °C
Temp (Max today): 8.9 °C @ 09:48
Temp (Min today): 4.9 °C @ 03:29
Windchill: 2.9°C
Apparent Temp: -7.6°C
Dew Point: 5.5°C
Relative Humidity: 79%

Rainfall (hour): 1.5 mm
Rainfall (today): 3.3 mm
Rainfall (month): 67.2 mm
Rain Days: 13

Sadly snow not included.

Not really . Maybe a tiny bit in the cold sectors for the mountains but nothing that will stack up or last. It was over 14C here a couple of days ago, stupid temps for the time of year.

74.5mph peak gust a few minutes ago. Nearly 7mm of rain in the past hour and a half, so flooding looks likely as well.

76.7mph peak gust with many readings over 65mph at the moment. Also very wet. 14.7mm of rain in Portree so far, so flooding expected.

Went outside a little while ago to bring in firewood and the noise is pretty spectacular. The sheep in the field are not looking happy though 

I have to say, I'm very surprise the MO have not put out at least a yellow rain warning. Flooding for sure here on Skye today, but in more mainland areas it could lead to landslides and transport issues I guess.

The radar at least seems to show some very intense rainfall over a very large area of Scotland / Northern Ireland.

Didn't see 14C here yet this month but you must have Foehn effect to get those temps high.  Mean little heating needed.

Getting reports of some flooding on the A855 at Storr Lochs. Seems there is too much runoff from the sourrounding mountains for the drains and culverts to cope with. 22.5mm so far in Portree, 12mm here.

Winds have fallen back, gusting in the 50 - 60mph region up here. Temps are nearly 11C at the moment....

Utterly miserable afternnon here. strong winds and pouring down, nearly dark as well at 3pm!

No real wind here so far, but i could just be sheltered from it.

Has been pissing down since back of 12 though.  17mm so far.  Could rack up a decent rain total by the end of Dec.

Partick game just been abandoned due to waterlogged pitch.

 LLTNP 105m asl 

My wife has just got back from shopping in Portree. While she was in the Portree co-op the car park flooded and half the car park went under water. Apparently people had to leave their stuff to rescue cars, though I think the building is slightly higher up so it shouldn't flood. The royal mail sorting office has also flooded. I've seen the co-op flood once before, but it is very rare. Also flooding at Kilmaluag near us, but not sure if the main road (A855) has been flooded. 

Looking at GFS charts, this thread could easily turn into 'stormy fortnight', with even us soft southerners noticing the wind. Certainly very rough for NI/WScotland for the next couple of days.

Had to take a wander a short while ago.  Strangely pleasant outside (temperature wise)

Winds were gusty, but not overly strong, was lashing with rain but it has now stopped/cleared.  Total 22mm today

 LLTNP 105m asl 

Yes, pretty wild again. Peak gust this morning, 74.5mph a little while ago with winds gusting severe gale 9 just now. High reading coroborated by my second anemometer showing 71mph as well. It has been dry but rain is starting to fall, and colder though rather academic given the wind speeds. A87 Skye Bridge closed to high siders again.

While it's wild enough here, thank goodness the worst of the weather is way out west, so the higest speeds from this system will likely be in Western and Northern Lewis. Keep an eye on Europie weather station at the Butt of Lewis.

Shulista, Isle of Skye, Lat: N57:41:20 (57.688757) Lon: W6:19:06 (-6.318203), 40m ASL
Weather readings @ 10:04 on 15-12-2013
======================================================

Relative Pressure: 992.4 hPa & falling quickly

Wind (Now): 23.5 m/s (52.6 mph) Force 9, Severe Gale
Gust (Now): 28.2 m/s (63.1 mph)
Wind (Ave today): 13.1 m/s (29.3 mph)
Gust (Max today): 33.3 m/s (74.5 mph) @ 09:23
Wind Direction: SE - 135.0°

Temp (Now): 7.7°C
Temp (Avg today): 6.9 °C
Temp (Max today): 8.1 °C @ 09:48
Temp (Min today): 5.9 °C @ 00:40
Windchill: 1.0°C
Apparent Temp: -10.5°C
Dew Point: 1.8°C
Relative Humidity: 66%

Rainfall (hour): 0.0 mm
Rainfall (today): 0.0 mm
Rainfall (month): 79.8 mm
Rain Days: 13

Nearly 90mph at Eoropie just now (144kph). It's a wild spot right enough (but a great view to the north pole)...

By the time yesterdays front arrived down here it was just a pphhtt  Wind picked up a little and there were some spots of rain mixed in with it but nothing to even register on the guage! Good luck with your next one!

Justine - Witham, Essex, 27masl

Yes, there has been some thundery activity around Portree and hail here after the cold front passed through earlier. Still gusting close to 60mph in the squalls.

And we're not out of the woods yet either. It's a steady stream of depressions this week, another Tuesday, mostly giving gales around 60mph. But a system on Wednesday / Thursday is being watched. MO already have a yellow gale warning out for us, it could become very wild....

The good news, as Moffatross said earlier there is now a greater chance of colder spells for the mountains, so maybe we'll get white mountains for Christmas (maybe even at low levels from time to time, but not long lived)....

Overnight peak gust was 76.7mph at 22:48 here. I actually think it sounded worse last night as the wind was from the south, which makes the roof creak more than a westerly does. There was no gale warning from the Met Office for the storm overnight, whch I think is absurd. It was always going to be wild, with high wind speeds averaging over 60mph, gusting over 70mph across north west Scotland, from around 21:00 through until about 01:00.

Anyway, another very wild spell overnigt tonight, but the worst may be for Argyll.....