We just lost power

[pscot]

It came back on right away, but it's been raining and blowing pretty hard since late afternoon, so it wouldn't be too surprising if it went down again. Everyone else OK?

[KT2000]

1. OK on Olympic Peninsula

Lots of rain and wind was earlier.
Lots of fields in standing water.

[uppityperson]

2. Winds mid-higher 20's, gusts low 30's. I was so hoping the rain would wait another couple

days for those in the slide recovery work.

There were possible thunderstorms predicted late this afternoon over here also on Olympic Pen, maybe moved over to mainland by now. Good luck with the weather.

One of my favorite sites
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sew/

[countryjake]

3. We had a big tree blow down, back in the woods...

We've had standing water out in the pasture, a mini-lake with ducks enjoying it, almost the entire month. It had just finally dried up on Monday afternoon, but it's back again, now.

I was washing up our supper dishes when it sounded like something might have fallen on the roof, wind was roaring, but I wasn't sure where exactly the crashing noise came from. When I went out to investigate (not a fit night out, for man nor beast), I was standing about 100 feet from it when a great big cedar hit the ground.

It must have split when I heard the first sound, cause there was no cracking; it probably had been briefly suspended by the other trees back there, and finished it's fall after I ran outside. Great big thud, the ground under my feet shuddered, and this morning it just looks sad laying there, back in a flooded swampy area. Half of it is still standing, tho.

We never did lose power yesterday, but it sure was a good wind. And we got two awesome lightning strikes, quick moving thunderstorm.

All of the trees are so water-logged, I'll be surprised if we haven't got even more blown over in the woods, root-balls and all. We don't go back there til the summer, it's a wetland full of water-fowl, except for the Cedar grove.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Where are you located...?

Glad the tree missed you!

We haven't had much in the way of windstorms this year, thank God, but we've had lots of "fun" with falling trees in the past: a huge Douglas fir that came down in a 2003 windstorm, with the trunk barely missing the house, but its branches punching a few holes in the roof and knocking off the gutters, a second Douglas that fell in 2007, fortunately missing the house entirely, and, during the January 2012 ice storm, the crown of a large maple breaking off and coming right through our bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night. Put it bluntly: if global warming means fewer wind and ice storms (fat chance...) around here, I'm all for it!

[countryjake]

5. We've had so many blow down in the yrs we've lived here...

but most are back in the woods, so not much danger of hitting anything. One big old scrub Cedar that's in front next to the driveway blew over several years ago and the tip-top of it was against the front door...we could hardly even get out past it, but it did no damage, came down within a foot of our car, too. That one was rootball and all, tho, and had standing water around it for a few weeks (just like this month).

There is one humongous red Cedar that's part of the woods, pretty far back from our home, but I figured out not long after we moved here that if it ever falls this way it would cut this trailer in half. That's the only one I worry about, but I checked it the other day when I was back looking for the one that split in half, and it's dry underneath, roots are fine.

We're in Skagit County, upriver a ways. We're some of the lucky ones who often get snow falling when everyone else just has rain, but not this year. It was frigid for only about five days, lots of snow, but once that all melted hardly any other signs of winter. I've been up here for thirty-four years and it was the weirdest winter I've ever seen.

Here's what sometimes happens in our woods when we get a good wind after too much rain:


I so wished I could have stood this one back up.