Posted on 12/14/2006 7:43:19 AM PST by djf
Freepers from Oregon, Western Washington, Vancouver island: ALERT!!! Major storm forecast today, and it's not like yesterday was exactly a nice May day either. This could be the biggest of the year. If you have a thermos, make your coffee now! Widespread power outages predicted.
Winds expected to start very high on the coast this afternoon, moving into Puget Sound by the latter part of the evening and continuing very high until mid morning.
Batten down the hatches!
December 14th, 2006 - 6:02am
(Port Angeles) -- It could be a wild weather night for the North Olympic Peninsula. The National Weather Service says another storm is expected to bring very strong winds and rain to the state later today and continuing into tomorrow. Sustained winds of 40 miles per hour or more are forecast for both sides of the Cascades -- and the weather service says gusts could reach 80 or 90 miles per hour on the coast. Meteorologist Jay Albrecht with the Seattle National Weather Service office tells Newsradio 1450 KONP an intense low is expected to form today and move onto the North Olympic Peninsula sometime tonight -- possibly between 8 and 10 o'clock. He says computer models show once the low passes off to the northeast, there will be a very strong westerly surge through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with 60 to 80 mile an hour winds possible over the water. Albrecht says the area he is worried about the most tonight is the west side of Whidbey Island, but all water-exposed areas could get hammered. Forecasters have a high wind watch in effect for all of Western Washington.
We had some standing dead trees in the back forty fall a couple nights ago, but they're of no consequence. If I didn't have the horses to worry about I'd pack up and go to a hotel. I am just so afraid for my trees. I've got lots of big ones all around the house and barn. For their own safety, I'm going to turn the horses out for the night where they can get out in the open and away from all the trees.
Sounds like a plan...at least, out in the open, they can get away if they need to....in a barn, they are closed in, and cannot get out if something should happen...I will be thinking about those horses tonite...
I guess all we can do is hunker down, and wait it out...its scarey tho, and I will sure be glad when its over...
You know you can always hunker down over at my place if it gets bad...
So far in Olympia it's just really dark. And even on the insulated roof here at work, I can hear the wind and rain.
I think we're as prepared as we can be... got plenty of water stored, batteries charged, candles ready, and a full tank of propane on the grill.
Is it spring yet?
Yeah - I'm afraid for them in the barn, they startle when branches start hitting the building, and if something really hit hard, they're trapped. I hate to turn them out, but they don't think like I do, they're horses. They're in right now, drying out, but we'll turn them out later when it starts to get bad. They're blanketed in good turnout blankets, and it's warm out... they'll be fine. I'm not sure where the safest place is for us to be. Our ole trailer doesn't have any structure at all if a tree comes down. I have have a mind to drive the truck out into the middle of the pasture with the horses and spend the night in that!
We might :~) It's safer there than it is here!
Just so long as you won't disown me for bein' a slob. ;-)
Definitely safer - I don't think trees could reach anything but the one end.
North Olympic Peninsula:
We lost 14 trees on our property during the last blow a couple of weeks ago. We planted most of these trees many, many years ago. If we lose as many this go around.....we might end up with a field instead of a landscaped wonderland.
The 3'+ snow dump and the hard freeze was tolerable, but I have had it with the wind!
I'm starting to think that we might as well move to Alaska and live on our boat.
Right now it's still.........lots of rain, but very still.
The wind's not going to blow them your direction... and if it was coming from that direction, they're protected by the rest of the woods before them. The trees that are at risk are the ones by themselves or at the windward edge between us headed our direction.
Oh, just let 'em suffer, Ed! You stay warm and snuggly this evening! :)
We've lost some standing dead trees in our back woods this winter, but so far none of any consequence.
All the best to you and yours up there.
I dont like the turn this weather is taking...right now, its pouring, the wind is starting to pick up, and yet it looks almost 'pink' outside...its kind of eerie...
We've had other nights of that odd pink lighting but it doesn't look like that here yet, and we're still getting lots of rain but no real wind yet.
"All the best to you and yours up there."
AND the same to you......
This is the first real time I have noticed those 'pink' skies...its just kind of eerie....I dont like it one dang bit...I am all alone right now, but my hubby should be home shortly...I know if something awful happens, he wont be able to stop it, but I will just feel better when he gets home...having someone to be scared with, is better than being scared all by myself...
Gettin pretty breezy here, wind gusts 20-30 out of the SW. Temp about 52.
It was weird this morning, because all there was was calm... like a dead calm.
I'm in SW OR in the foothills of the coast range 35 miles or so from the ocean.
Lots of flickering electricity and about 5 miles from here had one outage for a while that kicked me off the internet.
BTW, the local paper around here had an article about the Kims. The BLM was supposed to close the gate Nov. 1 to the logging spur that they got lost on. At first the BLM said vandals had opened it; now it turns out that BLM employees left it open. Up there it's easy to mistake the "real" road from the spurs.
We are experiencing a solar storm this afternoon, too. There is currently at an auroral activity level of 8 which means seeing aurora at lower latitudes is possible. I wonder if that could be affecting your cloud color.
http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html
Hi Ed!!
I like watching the logs go floating by when the water is this high....all that brown water...almost as good as the flood last year. Are you up or down river from the 6th street bridge?
Rancher
I truly feel sorry for him and his family. But my impression is that he was sort of a city slicker who was in over his head. As soon as he saw snow on the road, he shoulda turned around and headed for shelter.
I'd be nervous goin up in that country in my 4WD.
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