On Boxing Day 25 years ago, a hurricane raged across Scotland the likes of which hadn't been seen more than a generation.
Across the country, winds of up to 110mph brought widespread chaos and devastation totalling more than £50 million - and Glasgow saw some of the worst of the damage in what was the most intense storm since Hurricane Low Q in the 1960s.
In the city centre, huge sections of the 180ft steeple of the historic Renfield St Stephen's Church were toppled, with several tonnes of masonry crashing through the roof of the church below.
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Renowned as one of the city's most beautiful ecclesiastical landmarks, St Stephen's on Bath Street, which had been nearing the end of the £100,000 renovation at the time, was smashed to pieces and left looking like a bomb site.
Masonry had even smashed through the church's stone floor and into a crypt below, while most of the roof had collapsed with gaping holes left on both sides of the building.
With Boxing Day being the Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, this must have seemed like a particularly grievous omen to those of a religious persuasion. Fittingly, the storm was dubbed Hurricane Stephen.
In a state of shock, St Stephen's minister, the Rev David Lunan, told the Daily Record at the time: "There is so much damage it is quite difficult to take in.
"It is somewhat ironic the steeple was being repaired and that the work was nearly finished. We've had scaffolding up for a few months and were looking forward to it coming down."
Elsewhere in the city, scaffolding had crashed on to cars in Albion Street, while a building in the Barras had to be torn down due to significant storm damage.
Fortunately for St Stephen's Church, the damage, as extensive as it was, did not result in the 150-year-old building's demise.
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A director of the construction company Hunter and Clarke contacted the church and was able to commence repairs almost straight away. The restoration of St Stephen's was completed in 2001.
Commenting after the completion of the repairs, Rev Lunan said: ''We've managed to turn a tragedy into an opportunity, and today is important for us because it marks a new beginning in the life of this congregation and the whole community.''
As heart-wrenching as the toppling of the St Stephen's Church steeple by Hurricane Stephen was at the time, there were worse stories across Scotland and the rest of the British Isles.
In Greenock, a girl was fighting for life after being struck by a falling chimney stack. Louise Bennett, 16, suffered serious head injuries as she walked along the sea front in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. In Stonehouse, Lanarkshire, a six-month-old baby and her parents were hurt when a gas stove exploded in their home.
Thousands of homes were left without power and transport disruption was some of the worst ever seen.
The hurricane also caused the demise of one of Scotland's oldest trees. The Corstorphine Sycamore in Edinburgh, which had stood for an estimated 600 years, was uprooted and blown across the road.
Meanwhile, in Ayrshire, the reactors at Hunterston B nuclear power station had to be temporarily shut down for half an hour after power was lost due to the arcing of pylons. A nuclear disaster similar to the one caused by the 2011 Japanese earthquake was only narrowly avoided.
Most tragically of all, the hurricane claimed the lives of four people in other parts of the UK.
