Weather 2011

[Nold]

Threw the cake on top of the compost pile, away from the lips of border collies, and the squirrels ate it all.


Bob

[RickR]

As my Great Aunt Mary would say - Zoy! (I think it's a Slovenian derivation.)  I'd like to see the Flying Nun negotiate that weather .  That the downtown was closed really accentuates the severity of the matter.  Being from the "flatlands", it hard for me to grasp such a calamity with a storm accompanying.

And what a coincidence.  Today I was riding my bicycle and along side the road was an expensive looking unside-down cake pan still with cellophane wrap over the "top" (so I assume there was still cake).  I would have retrieved it for the pan, but then I would have been late for an appointment.

[Nold]

There was a patch on the side of the house where my neighbor claimed a railroad tie ("sleeper", across the ocean) was blown through the wall once. My neighbor is a nutcase, but it does get windy here. 90 mph, say (144.8 kph). Breezes.
Wind comes roaring down the eastern slope of the Continental Divide.
People who think that alpine plants are covered in snow all winter might contemplate the fact that the top wind speed recorded on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn. National Park is 176 mph (283.2 kph) ......
No cakes flying there.


Bob

[Lori S.]

Wind hasn't been nearly as bad here as in Calgary.
I can't resist posting pictures, so here's the mountain wave cloud this afternoon.

Bob

That's what's called a "chinook arch" here... there was one just like it out my office window today.  Yep, we do get chinooks frequently but, like I said, they're not usually so damaging!  They usually just break the cold spell, melt the snow and give people headaches (although the latter claim was supposedly debunked by a recent study... I can't comment, not being affected that way).
So, with no trains running through the downtown today, I made it to work in 1.5 hours today (as compared to my usual 1/2 hour or so)... can't complain, as many people waited hours for buses.
Lots of damage - trees falling on houses and cars and across roads, a roof torn off, lots of shingles/siding blown away, many semis blown over and rolled on the highways.  The wind at ground level was bad enough but at the height of the taller buildings, it was clocked at 150 kph, 90 mph (hurricane force winds or gale force 12 on the Beaufort Scale), hence the flying debris and broken windows.  Fortunately, there were no major injuries, despite that "showers of glass" were reported from downtown... very lucky, unlike Trond's account.
More damages from the same weather system along the southern mountain front... a huge grassfire driven by the wind near Lethbridge burned down a couple of houses.

No damage in our yard... I didn't even think to look for money or cake though!  Hilarious, Bob!

[Nold]

I remember being in Boulder (where I majored in Stupidity) during a windstorm, and thinking it might be good kite-flying weather.
The kite went up, and was torn to pieces by the wind.
Highway 93, runs from Golden to Boulder, passes Rocky Flats, where no trees grow. There is a reason for that. It's difficult if not impossible to steer a car when the wind really blows.
On a railroad curve a little further north, at equally treeless Marshall Flats, is a siding with line of abandoned coal cars filled with rocks, that I hear was left there as a windbreak, to keep trains from being blown over where the line curves and is particualrly vulnerable to high winds.
Well, at least it blows the smog away. 
But I've never heard of damage like you got.

Bob

[Hoy]

Some weather pictures from the last days - not mine though!

http://www.vg.no/protokoll/?pid=1016

[cohan]

That windy day Lori mentioned above was not quite as windy here, but still- I was out in the bush getting firewood, late morning, when the wind picked up some more, and I thought- time to get out of the trees!! A few minutes later I heard a loud crack somewhere back farther where I had been.. next time I was out there, I found a fallen mid-size aspen ( trunk maybe 8-10inches diameter near the bottom).. it had conveniently fallen right by one of my staging areas, where I pile wood I've collected farther out before carrying it all the way home...

The same day, I was at my cousin's down the road getting some firewood she had for me; when we left, I noticed a lot of smoke at the neighbours' across the road, so we drove up their long drive through bush to see-- and the wind was fanning a fire on both sides of the road and several spots-- they'd been burning some brush some time before, and the fire had remained in the soil (a common risk here, especially around wet areas with peaty soils!) and was brought back up by the wind and spread into grass and standing trees.. luckily it didn't go farther, as it was near long grass and spruce trees, and could easily have spread far; we told the neighbour and he went out to look, and my cousin went back to help after dropping off me and my wood...

[Hoy]

What about this? The whole year in one picture!



From this site:  http://nrkbeta.no/2011/01/06/et-helt-aar-i-ett-enkelt-bilde/

[cohan]

Interesting image- I fear my version would have a much smaller green section...lol