The weather in Shetland

London may be cool and breezy, but this week Shetland has been hit by the winter storms.

Lying right in the path of the swirling weather that curls down from the Arctic and blows across to Scandinavia, Shetland frequently has bad weather in the winter. It is that weather which makes it such an interesting place to live, as you can see from this page on Shetnews with a photograph by Ronnie Robertson. Isn't that truly spectacular?

The weather also makes for the quality of wool from Shetland sheep. In the immortal (somewhat censored) words of a colleague up North: "Bad wadder makks fur guid oo!" because the sheep protect themselves by creating a warm, soft and fluffy inner layer of fleece with coarser fibres over it to run the water off. No wonder Shetland wool is so desirable...

(For those who need a translation - Bad weather makes for good wool.)