Dr. Eddy Graham

During the summer of 2018 I undertook an epic cycle challenge, which I called the "#eddy500" .

My target was to cycle 500 miles across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and in the process raise money and awarness of eating disorders, which are serious and life-threatening illnesses.

Altogether I raised some £2,100 for the BEAT charity (Beating Eating Disorders) and I gathered and harnessed a huge groundswell of support for my cause. And although I did complete the 500 miles sucessfully, it seems the journey to raise awareness of and to fight eating disorders has only just begun.

Below, you can find a wee summary of my adventure, including some photographs taken en route (see attachments underneath).

To be continued...

To Whom it Concerns 

Now that the summer of 2018 has drawn to a close, I just wanted to finally thank you all again for your support during my #eddy500 cycle challenge this summer. Altogether I have raised well over ~£2,000 for the BEAT (Beating Eating Disorders) charity. Every single penny raised goes to them.

Of course, the cycling may be over for the moment, but the journey doesn't end here, as I hope my challenge will have gone some way towards supporting families with some-one suffering from an eating disorder. But even more important than the money, is the raising of awareness of these severe and life-threatening illnesses.

A reminder for those of you based in the UK, the BEAT helpline telephone number is: 0808 801 0677; And for more information, including online anonymous chat: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

For those interested, a quick summary of my cycle follows (attached also are a few photos taken en route):
I did the 500 miles in 11 different stages, starting (day 1 to day 3) by cycling the full chain of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland from north to south, from the Butt of Lewis to the Isle of Barra. The weather was glorious and dry.

I also made it my challenge to visit every populated Hebridean island, but realising that I had missed Great Bernera, I cycled there on 12 July, in yet more fine weather.

From the 23-27 July, the family joined me as we cycled the Great Glen of Scotland together, from Fort Augustus to Fort William, alongside the beautiful Caledonian canal. Again, the weather was stunningly warm, and we plunged into every loch en route, sometimes twice in a single day!

However, on the night of 27/28 July, the weather finally broke with a violent electrical storm, and we got soaked to the skin in a massive cloudburst while cycling the beautiful, lonely parallel roads of Glenroy.

On 30 July, I had another enjoyable run on the bike from Laggan, Glen Cluney, all the way to Inverness Raigmore, on the cycle track. Then it was back to Ullapool and Stornoway, where the children and family needed me.

The worst and most challenging run was on the final day (4 August), return from Stornoway to Scalpay (my final populated island). I waited impatiently to get going on Sat 4 August, starting at 5:30am at the crack of dawn. However, battling against a strong cold wind and miserable skies, by 8:00am I had journeyed only 25 miles. Like Toad, I hid temporarily under a bridge to escape the worst of the weather, falling asleep for ~30mins, only to awake shivering and wishing for my warm bed! Returning over the Clisham (a high pass), the mountain gods seemed to release all of their otherworldly demons at me - with torrential sheets of soaking rain, and I was nearly blown off my bicycle. But I got back safely to Stornoway that night... with 519 miles complete... and I had a long, long and very hot soak in the bath.

High points: Having a celebratory swim at Vatersay (Barra) after completing the first 170 miles; cycling the lonely Glenroy with the family on 28 July; getting fit again (LOL). Knowing that I am doing something positive.

Regrets: I did not get to visit some places on my original itinerary, but such is the nature of cycling and Scottish weather. Another time, another place, je serai lá.

I also quickly realised that Scotland needs many, many, many more cycle routes, completely separate from vehicular traffic - but this perhaps is another fight for some-one else to take up.

So from the heart, thank you again for all of your superb support.

With kindest wishes
Eddie and Family
Stornoway, Bonnie Scotland.

It's nearly unbelieveable - the past nine days (to 31 May 2018) have seen 119 hours of bright sunshine in #Stornoway, which is an average of 13.2hrs per day, making it sunniest spell in the town for at least 6 years (since June 2012). Infact, we comfortably beat #TenerifeSur's (WMO station: 60025) total of 54.2hrs and #Lanzarote's (WMO station: 60040) total of 77.3hrs for the same period.

And the heat still goes on, with no sign of it letting up yet... #Scorchio #Scotland

Eddie ha terminado su año sabático. ¡Qué aventura en Tenerife! Aquí hay algunas fotos y películas meteorológicas. Muchas gracias a todos, Eddy.

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After six and a half glorious months on Tenerife, Eddy's period of sabbatical leave is now over, and he has returned to Stornoway. What an adventure! See below for a few memorable meteorological photos and movies. It was certainly the "time of my life". With great thanks for everyone, Eddy.

Time Lapse Cloud Movie Videos (Tenerife playlist) here:https://youtu.be/xcWloQsuT0g?list=PL95LKZN9i_Qf4Wlnws8u0OVZ04msIRbpB&t=1

Teide (3708m) rises majestically above the stratocumulus clouds of the trade-wind inversion.

Eerie and stunning view of the Alisio trade-winds across Anaga to Roque de la Forteleza from La Laguna at dawn.

Stunning view towards Santa Cruz de Tenerife (and Gran Canaria more than 100km beyond in the distance), from San Roque, La Laguna.

El Bronco (725m) and Pico Cancelita, Pico Amarillo and Pico Colorado (775m) , La Laguna.

El Bronco and Vega de Las Mercedes, La Laguna.

The Solar Eclipse of 21 August 2017, captured by Eddy from San Roque, La Laguna.

A bumble bee searches for some nectar on La Gomera.

View from Guímar to Izana mountain.

'Purpi-heaven' at Garajonay, La Gomera.

Eddie's final day at the Institute de Astrophysics, La Laguna.

For all James Joyce fans around the world - today, 16 June, is 'Bloomsday'!

Bloomsday is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character in Ulysses, the novel by James Joyce, arguably one of the greatest works of literature of all-time . The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters – real and fictional – from 8am on 16 June 1904 through to the early hours of the following morning, in Dublin, Ireland.

Ulysses is riddled with enigmata (plural of enigma), tricks and conundra (plural of conundrum). Joyce even got the weather right on the day in question (it was a warm summer's day in Dublin, with a high temperature of 23-24degC, but there was a thunderstorm in the evening!

After a little bit of detective work (sorry, only a little), I have uncovered the following weather gems in Joyce's magnum opus:

"Warm sunshine merrying over the sea"

"His frocktails winked in bright sunshine to his fat strut"

"Thunder in the air. Was washing at her ear with her back to the fire too. He felt heavy, full: then a gentle loosening of his bowels"

"The deafening claps of thunder and the dazzling flashes of lightning which lit up the ghastly scene testified that the artillery of heaven had lent its supernatural pomp to the already gruesome spectacle"

"past ten of the clock, one great stroke with a long thunder"

OK, ok, next time I'll use 20th century reanalyses by NOAA-CIRES or ERA20C by ECMWF - sorry time does not allow today.

Happy Bloomsday 2017 to all!

@eddy_weather

The sub-tropical trade winds have been blowing more strongly than normal across the Canary Isles in recent weeks. Here is an (otherwise) rare example of a foehn waterfall cloud, captured in time-lapse mode (at 1/50 hertz) by @eddy_weather on 2 June 2017, from Santa Cruz de Tenerife - wow!

If you cannot see the animation here - click here!

Today in the #CanaryIslands as seen by the NASA Terra sensor (713km above us): Lovely 'bow waves' appear in the trade wind cloud layer as it approaches the mountainous isles from the N/NE. But Aha! How does the wind know each island is ahead of it? Can the wind itself predict what is ahead of it? (answer below)

Answer: Much like the way a motorway traffic jam propagates backwards against the flow of traffic, the velocity and air pressure fields change considerably in the airflow ahead of the Isles

@eddy_weather

#NASA MODIS Terra

There were some spectacular trails of 'sunglint' to the lee of Canary Islands yesterday (18 May 2017), as seen by NASA MODIS Terra satellite sensor. Sunglint is the isotropic reflection of the sun's rays from a still water surface (isotropic means it has a preferred direction). In this case, the wind was blowing strongly from the north/north-east, and in the lee of the mountainous islands, the sea is more sheltered from the wind. Thus it is smoother and hence reflects more sunlight back to the satellite sensor.

Looking more closely, one can see the actual impression of the lee atmospheric gravity waves on the sea surface (these are not regular ocean waves - instead these have wavelengths of several kilometres).

@eddy_weather, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 19 mayo 2017

Eddy is presently on sabbatical leave from the University of the Highlands and Islands and is currently working at El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife (Canary Islands). Here are a few photographs of his new surroundings:

The view from el Mirador de San Roque (~725m) in La Laguna, down to the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the island of Gran Canaria beyond across the sea in the distance.

View to the Guajara campus of the University of La Laguna.

View across towards La Vega de las Mercedes

San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with many beautiful buildings dating back to 17th century and earlier.

Eddy on his first day of work at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in La Laguna.

The view from my workplace to the Anaga mountains in the distance. The large satellite dish sits on top of the roof of the nearby Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos.

Of course, a trip to Tenerife would not be complete without a visit to desert landscape of Mt Teide, the world's 3rd highest volcano at 3,718m in altitude

Inside the huge volcanic crater, many different coloured and solidified lava flows can be seen (the black ones on the mountain slope are thought to date from the late Middle Ages)

@eddy_weather, April/May 2017

A very happy #WorldMetDay to you today (23 March 2017) from @eddy_weather in the Hebrides, Scotland!

Based on long-term Met Office records for Stornoway (which digitally stretch back to 1873, one of the longest such series in Scotland), the winter of 2016-2017 so far in Stornoway is the 2nd mildest (out of 144 years), 21st driest (out of 144 years) and 48th sunniest (out of 88 years), according to the latest data from @eddy_weather.

Let's look at the data with the aid of a few charts. Firstly,  air temperature: Up to the end of January 2017, the current winter's mean air temperature of +6.9C has only be exceeded once before, in 1989:

Next, precipitation (rainfall & snowfall): We are having a dry winter, the driest in 6 years (since 2011) and the 21st driest in the whole 144-year record (so about a 1:6 or 1:7 year event):

And finally, days with air frost: There have been only 3 air frosts this December and January, which is the joint 10th lowest total since 1873. Overall, there's been a decrease of about 25% in the number of days of air frost since 1873 for these months (see trend line).

@eddy_weather, Stornoway, 5 February 2017.