29/01/2016 Reporting Scotland

Storm Gertrude has battered much of the country.

From Shetland to Saltcoats, storm-force winds and heavy rain

have caused transport disruption and damage to property.

Dozens of schools were closed and thousands of homes

Around 1,200 properties in the north remain without power tonight.

The country woke up to a battering as Storm Gertrude made her presence

felt. Cyclist and joggers were undeterred in Glasgow. How is your

cycle to work this morning? Is going very well, despite the strong winds

today. You are committed. Not really, mad! Others found the walk

to work a struggle and diversions because of unsafe buildings made the

commute even more miserable. Across the country, there was travel

disruption. The Forth Road Bridge was closed all morning. In Orkney,

it was just too stormy for these ferries to brave the journey. An

overturned lorry cause delays here near Stirling, and it was a big

operation to write this lorry. Throughout the day, people had been

working to get train services back to normal but when I was there at

the morning rush hour, it was a front picture. At this time of the

morning, you'd expect this station to be far busier than it is and that

is because trains are cancelled on the west Highland line so you can't

get to open or Fort William. If you're trying to get to Inverness,

you can get as far as Perth beef for the services are cancelled. And the

usual every 15 minute Glasgow to Edinburgh train is running every

half an hour. Outside Central Station, taxis picked up people

running late. I'm coming from Paisley but it has taken me twice as

long as it normally would. It hasn't been ideal. The queues have been big

for the taxi. Normally there are a lot of taxis here, but Barack many

about. Are you late? Yeah. At the height of the storm, 12,000 people

were without power. Our weather forecasters have been monitoring the

development of Storm Gertrude through the week, and we have moved

resources, engineers, support staff, mobile generators into position

right across the Highlands and Islands to be ready to respond as

quickly as possible. On the Shetland, where winds reached over

100 miles an hour, as will as Orkney and the Western Isles, schools were

closed. Pupils in other schools, like this one in Edinburgh, got a

day off, too, and the scaffolding at this building site toppled over. The

worst of the winds might have passed us, but it'll take time to repair

damage that has caused. Shetland has borne the brunt

of the gales, with a red "danger to life" weather warning

in place throughout the afternoon. The gusts have been

among the highest ever It has been an exceptional day of

wind here in Shetland. We have had hurricane force winds battering the

islands most of the day, the strongest winds up at 105 miles an

hour. The Met Office says that even though Shetlanders were used to

strong winds, this has been exceptional. We have hurricane force

12 storms in January, but these gusts are pretty unusual, it is

pretty close to the highest gust speeds ever recorded. It has been

surprising there's been relatively little damage in Shetland. There was

a fan blown off the road earlier today, a few roof slates have, but

according to the place that's because the people of Shetland have

been prepared and they saw this coming. The decision was made to

close all the schools to make sure no children were danger. The public

seem to be staying at doors and setting the event out. There are

been no reports of significant damage so far, no injury to anybody.

Shetland seems to have been relatively unscathed by these

exceptionally strong winds. Around 400 properties were left without

power for a short while. There have been no interisland ferries, no

interisland flights, either. Flights from Shetland down to mainland were

called off at 1pm. The worst of it is passed although we understand it

will be another blustery weekend and Monday we are warned they could be

strong winds returning again. Hopes are high in Shetland it won't be

quite as strong and we won't have 100 mile an hour winds again.

Ferries serving the islands on the west coast have experienced

disruption for days now, thanks to the weather.

Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne said all of its 26 routes had been

affected either by cancellations or delays because of today's storm.

With wind and snow to come, many services are now cancelled

It is going to be particularly bad tomorrow and it won't improve until

Sunday, so, at the moment, most of the services will be subject to

cancellation and delay extending into tomorrow, and then, hopefully,

once the weather improves, we will look to make additional sailings on

Sunday. Every council in Scotland

which isn't run by the SNP has branded the Scottish Government's

deal on council funding Council leaders on the Convention

of Scottish Local Authorities voted by 21 to seven today to reject

the government's offer. Four councils which aren't part

of Cosla are exploring Finance secretary

John Swinney called the offer Councils have until a week

on Tuesday to respond. Andy Murray is through to his fifth

Australian Open final. To win it for the first time,

he'll need to defeat the man who's beaten him three times

in previous Melbourne finals, They've never known a Grand Slam

quite like it. They came to support Andy Murray. They arrived on court

knowing two other Scots had already reached Melbourne finals. Could he

make it a tartan trouble? The big serving Canadian did his best to

spoil the Scottish intake by breaking Murray straight away. First

set, Milos Raonic 6-4. The Murray metal was well and truly tested but

Heath picked a fine time to break his opponent's serve and levelled

the match. A titanic tussle in the third took us to a tie-break with

Raonic revelling in the arena. There were two kinds of pain for the now

reeling Raonic. The physical one in his right leg, and the mental one

when Murray broke again right at the start of the deciding set. Not the

only thing that got broken. Having sat to his spirit, the Scot served

for the match. A place in his fifth Melbourne final assured and a place

in history with the Murrays of the first brothers to make finals at the

same Grand Slam. It is something that is going to be extremely rare,

you're not going to see it often. So we should enjoy it and be proud of

it because it is a tough thing to do. The brothers aren't the only

Scots in the finals. It is a tartan trio thanks to Helen Weed who is in

the finals of the wheelchair singles and doubles. Two days, three Scots

going four four Australian Open titles.

Christopher has the weather outlook for the weekend for us.

Brace yourselves! Good evening and what date it has

been with Storm Gertrude sweeping through. Weather watchers sending in

pictures of felled trees. Here's a snapshot of some of the highest wind

gusts we've seen. 105 miles an hour, the highest winds, in Lerwick.

Staying windy tonight. We have a wide scale yellow be aware warning

and an be prepared warning for the northern and southern parts of the

mainland with the risk of gales and snow. To stop the weekend, pretty

windy conditions from the West and frequent snow showers to all levels.

Away from the immediate north-west coast. There will be disruption on

the roads if you're driving of a higher parts of the road network.

Across the UK, the Lions share the sunshine across England and Wales.

The temperatures, but add on the winds, it will feel bitterly cold.

Let's take a look at mid-afternoon. The showers going through, but there

be some dry weather, even some sunshine. The showers are hit and

miss, but if you catch one, it will be snow. The winds in Aberdeenshire

still strong to gale force. And potentially up to severe gale in

exposure. The showers easing down through the evening, the winds

easing back, but then there's the risk of ice. To Sunday, we are

bringing in some milder air from the south. This were the front bringing

rain across the West and south-west. For the north-east, drying up.

Temperatures slightly up and the winds lighter. Monday, though,

another deep area of low pressure with the potential of further

damaging winds. That is the forecast for now.

Our next update is at 5:50pm tomorrow evening.

But, from everyone on the late team here in Glasgow and around