Roads were closed and ferries and planes cancelled as the tail end of a huge hurricane hit the north east yesterday.
Hurricane Gonzalo made her force felt with winds of nearly 60mph across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray – prompting the Met Office to enforce a “yellow” severe weather warning.
Aberdeenshire was among the worst to be hit by the storm as Gonzalo swept in from the Atlantic, with fallen trees causing road delays and closures across the region all morning.
Lossiemouth saw the highest winds in the Grampian region, with gusts of 57mph battering the coastal town, while Aberdeen saw winds of 47mph.
Yesterday morning, trees succumbing to the weather scattered Aberdeenshire’s roads, with the unclassified Glassel road between Torphins and Inchmarlo closed by police for several hours as Aberdeenshire Council unblocked the route.
Elsewhere, the A952 Toll of Birness to Mintlaw road, north of the village, was also blocked by a tree, as was the A920 Oldmeldrum to Ellon road, at the Ellon Sports Centre, and the A97 Aberchirder to Banff road, at the sculpture gardens. All of the incidents were cleared by 12pm.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said: “Roads and landscape services staff have been dealing with various problems caused by windy and wet weather across the entire Aberdeenshire Council area. Staff are out dealing with what needs to be done as and when it happens.”
The Inverurie to Huntly stretch of the Aberdeen to Inverness A96 was also blocked by anorthbound, near Morgan McVeigh’s country food shop, by a tree from 9pm for several hours.
Northlink Ferries to and from Aberdeen Harbour were also affected by the foul weather, with the 4.45pm sailing from Stromness, Orkney, and the 7pm from Scrabster, Caithness, both cancelled.
Four flights in total to and from Heathrow and Frankfurt were cancelled, with delays to flights to Scatsa, Shetland.
Met Office spokesman, Dan Williams, said the worst of the winds had occurred yesterday afternoon, adding that today’s weather would be both “drier” and the winds “tamer”.
He added: “Wednesday will be a breezy day, with gusts of between 20mph and 30mph. It starts reasonable dry with the odd glimpses of sunny spells.
“The weather settles down Thursday. Thursday’s mainly dry and the wind is relatively tame, with 20-25mph gusts. By the Friday certainly around the east coast area best chance of seeing a bit of sunshine, it should be a dry day with low winds.”
