By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Scotland were forced to issue a warning over the weekend after an event inspired by the 'Storm Area 51' craze suggested that people flock to Loch Ness in search of the legendary monster said to lurk at the site. Much like its American counterpart, 'Storm Loch Ness' jokingly argued that descending upon the location en masse would somehow solve the longstanding mystery because "Nessie can't hide from us all."
While it has yet to amass the jaw-dropping number of alleged attendees that the Area 51 event has garnered, the Loch Ness version has drawn interest from around 60,000 people. The fairly sizeable number of potential monster hunters purportedly planning to visit the site on September 21st caught the attention of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) stationed at the location and, as one can imagine, they were concerned about the concept.
In a statement posted to the RNLI Facebook page, the group noted that "with no US Army involved, Loch Ness looks a little less hazardous than storming Area 51, but here we have our own set of problems!" They went on to explain that their lifeboat "has an impressive survivor carrying capacity," but it is not nearly big enough to accommodate tens-of-thousands of people who may be in distress should they decide to storm the waters of the site.
To that end, the organization observed that Loch Ness possesses a number of characteristics which make it a particularly bad location for storming. Specifically, they noted that it is around 750 feet deep and that the water averages a frigid 42 degrees Fahrenheit "all year round, meaning cold water shock and hypothermia are real dangers." Although the 'Storm Loch Ness' event is seemingly not being taken seriously by those claiming that they will attend, clearly the RNLI believes that there is the potential for some foolhardy individuals to actually show up in September looking for Nessie and, in turn, needing to be rescued.