Islanders are busy securing everything down in readiness for what is promised to be one of the worst spells of weather this winter.
The first gale of 2002 has started to show the first signs of its ferocity with winds gusting up to 35mph today. The wind is blowing from a southerly direction and is forecast to back around to the South West moving into Friday and Saturday.
Islanders have taken general precautions against the adverse weather by securing all loose items down and moving boats to secure moorings or indeed, hauling them up. There were several torrential downpours overnight and expected to continue through until the end of the week. The wettest day is expected to be Friday whilst Thursday is expected to have sunny spells.
Southerly and South Westerly gales are the most predominant in Scilly due to the prevailing winds. One advantage of this is that warm air will be lifted off the gulf stream, meaning that the high winds over the weekend will be comparatively warm and contribute to a top temperature of an unseasonably high nature, around 12 degrees centigrade.
In similar stormy periods, the lifeboat and other rescue services have seen high callout rates so it is thought that both the RNLI and RNAS Culdrose (the helicopter base) will be on a high state of alert through this period. The Helicopters from Culdrose have already had a busy start to their week, being called out to incidents at Newquay on Sunday, South of Plymouth on Sunday night and many other operations flying to Treliske hospital, coinciding with the start of this gale.