Wind Blows!

[Airbozo]

Finally back online at work. The wind storms blowing through northern California the last 2 days knocked out my power and stranded me close to home all day yesterday. There are 3 different routes out of boulder creek and all of them were closed due to down trees or power lines all day long. I was on the road 4 hours trying to get to work and finally just went home. The wife and I pretended we were camping except it was too windy to build a campfire in the back yard. Plus with all the crap falling from the trees it was a take your chances kind of day (they don't call em "widow makers" for nothing!).

My road is so covered with redwood branches and needles you cannot see any pavement. My neighbor had a large branch land spear-like into the hood of his pickup and now he cannot start his truck or open the hood to see what is damaged. My other neighbor got lucky when 2 of his trees went down and _barely_ missed our other neighbors car ( not redwoods, but small 50' oaks).

I ran over so many branches this morning on my way to work, I had to stop twice and pull the crap out from under my car... The wind has died down to only 40mph gusts (compared to 80-120 mph gusts), and we are hoping our power comes back on today or I will have to fire up the generator to warm the house and cool the food.

Ahhh good to be back online, and the shakes have subsided... :D

[Mitternacht]

...wow. I live in a high wind area too. I've had a close tree experience too. A tree landed feet away from my Corvette, when there was no insurance on it.

[luciusad2004]

Boulder Creek California huh? My dad used to live up there. We used to go to the Boulder Creek Brewing Company (or something to that effect, its been awhile) all the time when i would come visit for the summer. But he got married so now he lives down in Carmel. I liked it up in Boulder creek.

[Airbozo]

...wow. I live in a high wind area too. I've had a close tree experience too. A tree landed feet away from my Corvette, when there was no insurance on it.

I got a good/bad corvette story related to weather;

I used to live in Arvada, Colorado and owned a 69 chevelle. My close neighbor owned a corvette (not sure which year). I was going to party after work so I drove my van and on the way it started hailing. I thought nothing of it until I got a call from my sister at work. She was bawling uncontrollably muttering some incoherent words interspersed with ...chevelle...hail...destroyed, sorry! I got home early the next morning and did not see my car until it was light out. I then understood why she was so upset, because she liked my car more than I did and it was completely destroyed by hail. If I had drove the chevelle, it would have been spared and my van would be destroyed, but it would have been covered by insurance. As I was leaving for work that afternoon, I passed my neighbor who was splayed across the hood of his corvette, crying. His corvette was in worse shape than my chevelle, with holes in the body every foot or so... Half a dozen people went to the hospital that day because they tried to run out an move their cars...

[Airbozo]

Boulder Creek California huh? My dad used to live up there. We used to go to the Boulder Creek Brewing Company (or something to that effect, its been awhile) all the time when i would come visit for the summer. But he got married so now he lives down in Carmel. I liked it up in Boulder creek.

You got it right, the Boulder Creek Brewery is still there and they make a wonderful Redwood Ale (actually brewed with sprigs of redwoods...).

[Mitternacht]

I got a good/bad corvette story related to weather;

I used to live in Arvada, Colorado and owned a 69 chevelle. My close neighbor owned a corvette (not sure which year). I was going to party after work so I drove my van and on the way it started hailing. I thought nothing of it until I got a call from my sister at work. She was bawling uncontrollably muttering some incoherent words interspersed with ...chevelle...hail...destroyed, sorry! I got home early the next morning and did not see my car until it was light out. I then understood why she was so upset, because she liked my car more than I did and it was completely destroyed by hail. If I had drove the chevelle, it would have been spared and my van would be destroyed, but it would have been covered by insurance. As I was leaving for work that afternoon, I passed my neighbor who was splayed across the hood of his corvette, crying. His corvette was in worse shape than my chevelle, with holes in the body every foot or so... Half a dozen people went to the hospital that day because they tried to run out an move their cars...

Ah, I bet that Chevelle was beautiful. And yes, I'd be crying too if my Corvette got damaged. It's off insurance for the winter.

[Zephik]

One of my dads employee lost 50 tree's on his property. I can't remember what they said, but something was weird about it. Like how the tree's were blow over. Meh, it had something to do with the destructive power of the wind, thats all I remember. But that is still crazy to lose 50 tree's!

My brother, who is a police officer, was down there (Liberty Lake, WA) all night with his buddies answering to emergency calls. They had to bring out chainsaws to clear some of the roads and houses. My brother even had to check for bodies in beds where tree's had blow over and smashed up some house's. I don't think he said he found any though. Thank goodness!

I think that was about a week ago? Probably less, I have no memory for time. It comes and it goes. But I do remember that our huge windows on the front of my house were flexing dangerously and the updraft from hitting the face of the house was lifting up the roof hard. It pays to have a huge ass log home! Psh, no wind around here could ever lift these logs! ...I wonder how the guy did it? lol This isn't exactly a crane accessible area!

Glad you are okay Airbozo! Those kinds of winds are freaking scary!

-SnowFire

[Aero]

Wow, I never realized just how windy it could be out their in the west. We complain when we get 35 mph winds here near chicago. I can't imagine 80-120! Glad your all ok and not hurt.

But on a side note, did anybody hear about those tornados in Daytona Beach a few days ago? Well, the college I'm attending next year is Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They have one campusd in Daytona, and one in Prescott AZ (I'm going to Prescott). But anyway the tornado tore right through their Daytona beach campus. An F2 torando literally touched down on the runway. It flipped 50 aircraft and heavily damaged atleast 4 buildings. An aircraft hanger collapsed on 2 aircraft, luckly no one was inside, and many students were not on campus because it was winter break. Just gose to show how bad weather can really do damage anywhere at anytime.

[Slug Toy]

we had some big time wind up here a couple weeks ago. apparently it hit about 150km/h. power went out three times, and for some people it was out for two weeks straight. actually, not SOME people... more like 200 000 people.

the reason this particular set of wind storm is so bad is because it came from the west. normally it comes from the south east. all the trees are used to the south east wind, so they are rooted to deal with it. they arent rooted to deal with the western wind, so lots came down this time. theres a place called stanley park up here, and its right on the water. you should see it, trees down everywhere, and the whole damn park is pretty much closed from the reports ive heard, and its a pretty big park too. stanley park is to us what central park is to new york.

[Airbozo]

Part of what made this wind storm so bad was the fact that it rained _real_ hard for several days before the wind hit and saturated the ground. That coupled with the winds blowing in from the west were enough to doom _many_ trees. Although I have a 120yo oak that I thought for sure was going down and it is still standing. Go figure. On my way in today I saw several massive trees that were snapped off about 10-20 feet from the base! THAT is some awesome power!

[Omega]

Yeah man, the wind was insane yesterday. I had trouble closing my house door because the wind was blowing so hard at it.

Luckily, no trees or whatnot fell over. Nothing was damaged here.

Yay north bay!

[Slug Toy]

haha, there were some good videos of people in high rises... one guy couldnt get his furniture off his little sundeck. he was on something like the 20th floor, and the wind just kept ripping things out of his hands.

[Airbozo]

Just got a call from the wife (she is on winter vacation) and a _large_ redwood tree (over 100') just went down in our hood. She was in the house and heard/felt that baby go down. It was a tree on the bank of the creek in front of our house, and it happened to fall _just_ the right way and landed on the bank with out hitting anything important (like the water main that runs across the creek or any power lines). She tried to get a picture, but it is hard to get to that part of the creek. I may try some wild acrobatics this weekend to see if it is snap worthy...

Still no power at my house and the temp inside has dropped to 48f...

[Omega]

48f is nothing, honestly. It's been below freezing inside my house before. But yeah, it's still got to feel cold.

[docturtle]

Wow! That's some serious wind.

[luciusad2004]

Id actually just left Yosemite with my dad and his family before all of this started. Im sorta glad we didn't get stuck in Yosemite. It would have been nice to see it snow though. Im here on vacation from PA (going home tomorrow morning) and we have had a rather weak winter. Warm weather and no snow.

-Airbozo I wouldn't know about the liquor im to young to drink but i remember liking their onion rings

[ESX]

We didnt have much wind lately, but we sure had a lot of rain and a temperature drop. I dislike winter kinda :/
If we only had snow it might've been different... :P

[Airbozo]

Update: The wind has died down and moved west to Denver. The temperature in the house dipped to 39 before the power came on and the heater kicked in. This is bay far not even the longest we have been without power. That would be 6 days back in '96 when the skies opened up and we got something like 135" of rain that year. The ground was so wet trees were falling over without any wind at all. If the power had not come on last night, I would have had to fire up the generator to cool the food and warm the house. I wait till the last minute on the generator because I hate listening to it.

luciusad2004: Yes the Onion Rings are hand made and are some of the best I have had. Maybe it is because of the beer batter? They tried to go with pre-packaged rings and fries last year and almost had a revolt on hand. They are making their own again.

ESX: Yes I also dislike winter to a point. I moved out of Colorado because I did not want to live in the snow anymore. Now I just visit Tahoe for that icy fix...

[nil8]

I hate cold windy weather. Can't stand it. I like winter, but only when it's a clean cold. No clouds, no precipitation.
I will say that it's awesome to go into woods after an ice storm with no snow. It looks so different, there are no other creatures for miles, and you can hear the trees cracking. It's strangely serene.

Longest power outage I've ever been involved in was 9 days a couple of summers back. Our town had a relay station fire that knocked out around a third of the town. It was like camping, except involving showering with a garden hose. It sucked.

[PauL]

I live in Boulder Creek also. It was windy all day long. Power went out at about 4 in the morning. My dad said he saw a large flash, he thought it was a transformer blew because it lite the whole sky up. My family decided to go see a movie. When the movie was over we called PG&E and they said it would be back up between 8:00-9:00PM then another tree fell in Boulder Creek, as I was told and knocked the power you until about 9. Crappiest day I ever had.

[Slug Toy]

i hate the cold too. ive done tests to prove that my blood starts to crystallize at about 10 degrees celsius... i have reverse-antifreeze in me. if im ever presented the chance to disappear to a warmer climate (enough money after retirement, or a job opportunity) ill take it. i wouldnt mind spending my life in tahiti or fiji or borneo...

you reminded me of a good story paul. back when we had that wind storm, you should have seen the transformers going up around here... the sky was lighting up blue and green every couple of seconds. there was a real good one too, just up the street. i watched a tree fall on the lines, then a huge green flash, a loud humm, and the feel of static and smell of ozone. then our power went out...