Where Cows Fly

THE fierce winds of the Shetland Islands came to the world’s attention on January 5, 1993. They took hold of the Braer, a 797-foot-long [243 m], 45,000-ton oil tanker, and slammed it against this rocky outpost of northern Scotland. Within a week the wind and the waves had broken the huge ship into four pieces.

Howling windstorms are nothing new to Shetlanders. The remote group of about 100 islands, fewer than 20 of which are inhabited, stand first to meet the frigid gales that hurtle in unhindered from across the sea near Iceland.

Not surprisingly, the inhabitants have become accustomed to strange sights. One man, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, said: “Maybe there should be signs in Shetland: Beware of flying cows.” An acquaintance of his had one of his cows blown clear out of a pasture a few years ago. Another resident, a scientist, reported seeing his pet cat “fly” as far as 15 feet [5 m] in the wind​—always landing on its feet, of course. Drivers commonly load their vehicles with heavy materials, such as coal, to prevent them from being blown off the roads. People too have been blown off the ground, some even killed. One gust, which killed a woman, reached an unofficial velocity of 201 miles per hour [323 km/​hr]​—unofficial because the official wind gauge blew away in the same storm!