View Full Version : Weird weather - here we go again
We are still in a state of shock over the amount of damage from last week's windstorm. Trees and fences down everywhere throughout the city. And now another one coming through tonight with winds supposedly in excess of 80mph. The ones at night are the scariest. DH and I joke that we now have wind PTSD. Just that low howling sound fills me with dread or waiting for the thumps of tree branches and loose objects hitting the house. The good thing is I don't have to worry about the trees that crushed the neighbor's house anymore since they're down. Another good thing is this is the last straw in staying here any longer. I have tried to talk to the 89 yo neighbor and will pay her deductible and anything else we have to but her disdain over the incident and for us is apparent. I don't blame her feeling that way though. The silver maple in the back will probably go down but it at least will hit our house. The rest of the fence will definitely go down. In my six decades on this particular planet, I have never experienced weather like this.
iris lilies
12-23-21, 3:15pm
Wind PTSD is likely a real thing.
Decades ago I read a moving novel about a woman in West Texas who was driven mad by the howling sounds of wind.The wind on that plain is brutal.
That does sound very stressful. Sorry for all you are going through. In my neck of the woods, the winds have been unusually strong as well but not as much as yours.
It's supposed to be eleven next week. ELEVEN!! The weather here is historically mild. I'm bundled up to my ears and hunched next to a heater...
We've had a few cold spells and a touch of snow, but it's been unusually warm here for this time of year. Enough I could call it extreme weather. There hasn't been any significant precipitation since late August so I've watered the trees and perennials a couple of times, even though they are all basically drought tolerant. The mountains are supposed to get a couple of feet of snow this weekend, which will help. It's 65 degrees in my yard right now. and I had lunch on the patio. Normal might be something the 40's.
Normally people now are asking if it will be a white Christmas, but there are rain showers forecast for Christmas eve this year. I've lived in the state my whole life and I don't ever remember rain at Christmas time, though maybe it's happened some time ago. Good luck to Santa's sleigh with that.
rosarugosa
12-23-21, 5:58pm
I'm sorry Pinkytoe, that sounds very stressful.
Teacher Terry
12-23-21, 6:46pm
Having lived in tornado alley 3xs in my life severe wind storms really suck. I don’t know why your neighbor is mad when it’s hardly your fault.
Pinky, which general area do you live in? I can’t remember.
I’m in the Chicago area and yes, I also don’t remember it being this windy before.
pinkytoe
12-23-21, 10:46pm
I live in Colorado Springs.
rosarugosa
12-24-21, 5:27am
I think it varies by state, but in MA, you are not responsible if your tree falls on my property unless I have notified you previously that I have reason to believe it poses a danger to my property. If your laws are the same, you are under no obligation to do anything for your neighbor legally, so she should not be disdainful towards you, she should be grateful.
When my neighbor's 50' blue spruce toppled into my yard in the wind, her insurance covered the fence replacement, all the yard clean up, and some other minor damage in my yard. About half the tree ended up in my yard. This was my side during cleanup.
4129
rosarugosa
12-24-21, 9:45am
When my neighbor's 50' blue spruce toppled into my yard in the wind, her insurance covered the fence replacement, all the yard clean up, and some other minor damage in my yard. About half the tree ended up in my yard. This was my side during cleanup.
4129
And you are also in CO, so your experience is probably more relevant.
pinkytoe
12-24-21, 10:52am
This is the second time one of our trees has fallen on her house so her anger is justified I think but then again I didn't plant those spruce trees way back when. About a year prior, an arborist looked at them and advised to keep since they were healthy trees so we sort of forgot about it. Then again, no one was expecting winds of that magnitude. I do believe that with weather going forward all of our thoughts about what to plant will change especially with the ongoing drought here.
iris lilies
12-24-21, 12:52pm
We have a blue spruce tree in our community garden which is the bane of my existence because the stupid thing should not be there. It blocks sunlight from several of the beds, and people are always jockeying bed ownership to avoid it. The diva who ran our community garden flitted around planting random high-maintenance sun blocking plants because she really wanted the community garden to be her personal English ornamental garden.
so, in hot humid St. Louis the spruces do not thrive. Ours has topped out at about 22’ feet. It is barely blue. Each year the bagworms attack it, and at times the previously mentioned diva actually paid people yo pick them off for $10/hour. Not her own money of course, but neighborhood money.
In the past two years one gardener has taken it upon himself to care for the spruce snd pick off bagworms, so good for him! I cant complain about tree maintenance if he is taking care if it.
Apparently in the 50's planting blue spruce was popular in my neighborhood and now many of them are huge. My 90 something year old neighbor tells me that they have shallow roots that make them susceptible to wind if they are isolated without some sort of other wind break. And he recounts stories of ones that have blow over near by. The shallow roots of mine turned my driveway into rubble and I had it removed a few years ago. Cottonwoods are another tree I'd never plant for similar reasons.
And now there are multiple wildfires just outside of Boulder CO, serious enough to cause the evacuation of an entire 13,000 person suburb. In late December…
And now there are multiple wildfires just outside of Boulder CO, serious enough to cause the evacuation of an entire 13,000 person suburb. In late December…
I'm watching the live reporting right now. I'm familiar with the area and it's mostly short dried grassland, but they are calling it a life threatening situation and showing a couple of burning buildings. A very large residential area is being evacuated. Second warmest fall on record, little precipitation for months, and what they are calling hurricane force winds.. The first significant snow of the season is predicted tomorrow and an arctic cold front if things can get by until then.
They are saying about 35,000 evacuated now.
The wind has been whipping through here again. There is a tradition here of a group that climbs Pike's Peak and sets off fireworks at New Years. I am wondering about the sense of that given the conditions but they are already on the way up. Maybe it will snow before then.
I'm watching the live reporting right now. I'm familiar with the area and it's mostly short dried grassland, but they are calling it a life threatening situation and showing a couple of burning buildings. A very large residential area is being evacuated. Second warmest fall on record, little precipitation for months, and what they are calling hurricane force winds.. The first significant snow of the season is predicted tomorrow and an arctic cold front if things can get by until then.
They are saying about 35,000 evacuated now.
I grew up in Denver and still listen to KBCO over the internet when I'm at work sometimes which is how I heard about it. I had kind of the same reaction as you. This isn't an area where one traditionally has to worry about forest fire situations. But before a few years ago no one thought suburban Santa Rosa in northern California would be at major risk either, but that time the wind was strong enough to blow the fire over a major freeway and caused major damage to a shopping mall surrounded by huge parking lots and on into a residential neighborhood beyond, so I suppose nothing really surprises me anymore.
I'm sure it will work it's way into national news with updates. Unlike the more forested places where people may have their escape plans and go bags, I don't think anyone would have guessed at fire danger. I have friends who live in the evacuation zone. The local reporters are guessing at a hundred or hundreds homes destroyed. My favorite old timer weather man says with climate change there is no particular fire season here anymore.
We’ve had the wettest October -December ever. Parts of Marin county have gotten over 40 inches of rain. Normal for the entire year, with most falling January-March is like 30. They are still predicting less than normal for those months but hopefully they’d re wrong. It looks like we won’t have a winter fire season at least for this year.
catherine
12-30-21, 10:47pm
I'm sure it will work it's way into national news with updates. Unlike the more forested places where people may have their escape plans and go bags, I don't think anyone would have guessed at fire danger. I have friends who live in the evacuation zone. The local reporters are guessing at a hundred or hundreds homes destroyed. My favorite old timer weather man says with climate change there is no particular fire season here anymore.
Yes, it's front page NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/30/us/colorado-fires
Boy, that is terrible. So sorry for you guys out there.
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