19395: Arctic Weather in Uig

Excerpt from Stornoway Gazette and West Coast Advertiser

LOCAL AND DISTRICT NEWS – UIG

February 1, 1918

ARTIC WEATHER – Writing on the 21st our correspondent says. In common with other parts of Lewis, West Uig has experienced during the last fortnight two of the severest blizzards within living memory. The latter starting on Friday 11st inst., continued with unabated fury until the following Wednesday, and by that time the country was enveloped in a depth of snow that would have done credit to a Polar region. Roads were blocked, and in some places there were snowdrifts estimated at a depth often to twelve feet. The frost was equally severe – water and milk turing into blocks of ice in the houses even. Communication with the outside world was almost cut off. Mails could not be carried overland from Stornoway, but a "patrol" once took them "round the Butt" to Breasclete. The motor launch takes them to Miavaig. The thaw has now set in, and soon the country may be released from the grip of this Arctic giant.