Freak storm yesterday

Don M.

Don M.

SF VIP
Location
central Missouri
Yesterday evening, we had a freak storm pass through the area...with straight line winds of 60 to 70 MPH, and extremely heavy rainfall. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but the damage was quite severe for some. We got lucky, and it just made a mess of the yard, with branches and limbs all over the place. However, it took out at least 8 big Oak trees around the perimeter of the yard, and what little I can see back in the deep forest. I'm sure there will be several more down, when I go out into the forest later in the Fall. Several of the neighbors lost power for over 12 hours when a power pole snapped and brought down a transformer/power line feeding those living back there. The neighbor across the road has a big Oak that fell on his roof, and he is hoping to get a tree service Monday to bring it down carefully before it breaks through his roof.

This morning, early, those of us with tractors and chainsaws were busy pulling downed trees away from the roadway, and others houses, and cutting them up to manageable sizes. All this during the hottest time of year. We all quit about 2PM, as the temp is about 95 with a heat index of at least 105. I figure it will be 2 or 3 days of cleaning up the yard...working a few hours in the mornings. One thing about it...I shouldn't have to go very far to have plenty of firewood for the outdoor wood furnace for the next couple of years.

If there were any local skeptics about Climate Change and more severe weather, this storm probably gave them food for thought. If the reports of the Pacific El Nino hold true, this coming Winter could be pretty nasty for much of the nation.
 

Wow, sorry to hear about this, I can understand the devastation on losing the big trees as it has happened here, I think the trees here were already weak from the drought when we had storms to blow them over, I know it can get very expensive with the cleanup.
 

Glad you're still okay Don, that sounds like a bad one, seems like some tornado activity was mixed in? You have a lot of work ahead of you, be careful.
 
Don M. said:
If the reports of the Pacific El Nino hold true, this coming Winter could be pretty nasty for much of the nation.
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Yikes! That`s quite a storm. Here in California we are praying that the El Nino predictions hold true-we desperately need the rain-but I remember all too well the downside of that. Flooding and mudslides. We are safe from both but living in a town that is on the shores of the largest natural lake in California,I know that lots of friends will be dealing with flooding of their homes. Not fun.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
Yikes! That`s quite a storm. Here in California we are praying that the El Nino predictions hold true-we desperately need the rain-but I remember all too well the downside of that. Flooding and mudslides. We are safe from both but living in a town that is on the shores of the largest natural lake in California,I know that lots of friends will be dealing with flooding of their homes. Not fun.
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What are they doing with all the algae in Clear Lake?
 
Jackie22 said:
Wow, sorry to hear about this, I can understand the devastation on losing the big trees as it has happened here, I think the trees here were already weak from the drought when we had storms to blow them over, I know it can get very expensive with the cleanup.
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The problem we had here is that the soil is so wet from all the recent rains, that when the high winds hit these huge trees, full of leaves, it just pushed them over and pulled them out by the roots.
 
SeaBreeze said:
Glad you're still okay Don, that sounds like a bad one, seems like some tornado activity was mixed in? You have a lot of work ahead of you, be careful.
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When this storm hit, the first thing that crossed my mind Was a Tornado. However, the winds were coming straight out of the North, and none of the weather services had any indications of a tornado. It was just a hot humid day, and some big thunderstorms built up along fast moving cold front, and the result was a violent thunderstorm. This whole year has been a series of abnormal weather events...all over the country. I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come, but the way some of these climate scientists talk, crazy weather may become the norm.
 
" those of us with tractors and chainsaws were busy pulling downed trees away from the roadway, and others houses, "

Obviously a country boy. City folks would mostly just sit around waiting for "them" to sort things out!

I can remember a pretty foul Sunday evening up in the Highlands when a large tree cam down across the road. From nowhere large number of men appeared from across the estate with chainsaws and the tree was gone in twenty minutes.

If that had been down south they'd have been expecting air drops of food!


 
Laurie said:
" those of us with tractors and chainsaws were busy pulling downed trees away from the roadway, and others houses, "

Obviously a country boy. City folks would mostly just sit around waiting for "them" to sort things out!

I can remember a pretty foul Sunday evening up in the Highlands when a large tree cam down across the road. From nowhere large number of men appeared from across the estate with chainsaws and the tree was gone in twenty minutes.

If that had been down south they'd have been expecting air drops of food!
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Oh! dear, then you don't know what it is like where I live.
 
Sorry to hear about the trouble the weather has caused
you Don.

America always seems to me to have great extremes of
weather, all at the same time.

We are having a mixed bag of weather here, heavy rain
one day and heat the next, but nothing really bad for
the press to talk about.

I hope that you get things cleaned up quickly.

Do you and your neighbours work as a team to clear
each others property, faster?

Mike.
 
Do you and your neighbours work as a team to clear
each others property, faster?

Mike.
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There's about 20 families living on about 800 acres in this immediate area. A half dozen of us have tractors and various implements, and chainsaws, etc., and we kind of act as the area caretakers if something unusual happens. The county crews are pretty good here, but when something happens, they can't be everywhere at once...so we do the "basics", and that free's up the county work crews to come by later, and catch any details we might have missed. One of the neighbors had their driveway blocked with 2 big trees, so I hooked up a tow rope to my tractor, while a couple of the other guys cut the trees into 6 or 8 foot lengths, and I pulled the logs well off to the side, so these people could get in/out of their house and driveway. It all makes for a pretty nice little close knit forest community, and if anyone needs some help, all they have to do is make a phone call, and 2 to 6 of us can usually assist on virtually any project.

In the Winter, I put the blade on the tractor, and can usually count on spending a full day going around and clearing the snow off peoples driveways. The county clears the main road pretty quick when it snows, but that still leaves some with trying to get to the road via their snow covered driveways. Country folks kind of look after each other....a far cry from some of the city types who often don't even know their neighbors names.
 

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