Wild, wild morning. Awoke in the dark to flashes of lightning. A tornado warning had just been issued and, that quickly, canceled.
Soon, the phone buzzed with texts from Furrydoc making sure I was okay and all prepped up for what’s to come. (She always worries about me. She actually lives in a more exposed and vulnerable spot than I do, but she has Boy Scouts in the family and a ready bug-out plan.) Both of us have our storm preps pretty much covered. She mentioned filling the empty space in her freezer and fridge with jugs of water; a good touch.
By the time I got motivated to take Ava for her morning walk, opaque sheets of rain were blowing sideways and thunder boomed overhead in a way it rarely does hereabouts. Another warning: thunderstorm supercell spotted moving across the county, but fortunately the worst wasn’t right here.
Had to run errands in all this. When I opened the driver’s-side door of Old Blue, rain splatted all the way across the dash and onto the inside of the passenger windows. Donations left under the carport behind the thrift store are now tumbling down the highway to parts unknown. That sofa somebody dropped off is going to be really soggy, despite being well under the roof.
Managed an extremely short dog walk during what I imagined to be a lull in the action. Ava kept looking up at me: “Are you nuts? Is this over? Can we please get the hell back in the car?” Never did do what dog walks are supposed to be for.
I came home, peeled all my outer clothes off, turned on the mattress heater, wrapped up in an afghan, and am now eating leftover pizza in bed.
And oh joy — this is the storm that was supposed to be no big deal. This is just the storm before the storm that arrives tomorrow. That one’s the remnant of a typhoon. Cliff Mass should update within the hour on whether we’re going to get “historic” or merely “damned miserable again, only moreso.”
Good luck to my fellow denizens of the NorthWET. Our normally very stable power has been flickering all morning, so if I get quiet for a while, you can probably blame that old villain Ma Nature rather than the feds or invading space aliens (but I repeat myself).
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/10/major-windstorm-tornadoes-and-much-more.html
Latest word: Saturday’s storm will be the sort that’s strong enough to earn a name and at least a historical footnote. But it’s small in size and its track will determine everything about who gets clobbered the worst. The coasts of Oregon and Washington will certainly get it bad, though. One Oregon coastal town already had a tornado touchdown from today’s “interesting” weather.
I’m about 10 miles in from the coast, but behind the shelter of hills. So “if a tree don’t fall on me I’ll live ’til I die.” (Of course around here a tree falling on you is not an unthinkable event.)
Every time one of these big beasts comes along, I’m so grateful for satellite images and advance warnings — even if they do sometimes fizzle.
My U.S. weather report this am made your corner look almost as bad as we had it last week; from upper CA to WA looked wild.
Take care of yourselves (that includes Ava).
Thanks Pat. It’s definitely a serious one. And given the way of these things it will be worse because of the storms that came in the days before it.
It’s expected to be roughly equivalent to the Inauguration Day Storm of 1993
http://www.seattleweatherblog.com/wind/the-day-the-winds-roared/
… and the Hannukah Eve Storm of 2006
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah_Eve_windstorm_of_2006
But not, thank heaven, to the Great Coastal Gale of 2007 (which will always be The Big One to me, especially because I then lived on an exposed ridgetop near some of its worst winds)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Coastal_Gale_of_2007
… or the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, which was a whopper beyond all imagining.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/from-the-archives-columbus-day-storm-of-1962/
The Great Coastal Gale gets little mention in the weather press because its worst effects were outside of cities. I recall the Seattle media being absolutely obsessed with some severe, but limited-range, flooding around the I-5 freeway. The complete devastation caused by 30 hours of hurricane-force winds 50 miles west never even registered with them.
Same is likely to be true this weekend. If cities are spared, the storm will be considered a non-event. If Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver, BC gets hurt, the weeping and wailing will be heard coast-to-coast.
35 MPH winds here this afternoon. Lots of clouds, but too high to do anything. No rain forecast. Going down stairs to read a while. I got a neat LED reading light with a rechargeable battery… so I can read even if the elect. goes out. 🙂
And it is suddenly warm! Was cold all day, but when I went out to water things I found it warm. 75 degrees out there.
Stay safe, Claire. And I hope you don’t have to go out anymore.
Stay upright and dry, Claire.
Warm and dry here. I’d offer to check up on you, but you already have pizza. 😉
And of course I know better than to send the Usual Suspects.
“you already have pizza.” 🙂
LOL. Love it. And BTW, the pizza’s gone now, but Papa John’s would have to come a long, long way (probably over downed trees and flooded rivers) to get here.
9:45 now and all is quiet. Ava and I even got a pleasant, only slightly damp, walk this morning. The winds are due in an hour or two and will be building over the afternoon. Latest predictions are for this to be one of the 10 strongest windstorms ever recorded in the area, and with leaves still on the trees there will be power outages, at the very least.
Cheers and talk later,
Claire
Hey Claire,
When you talk about your home in the great northwet I see you are not kidding.
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/news/articles/us-weather/pacific-northwest-storm-rain-wind-oregon-washington-california-idaho/73117/
I hope you manage to ride out the storm tonight/tomorrow with no serious problems and I’m glad this didn’t happen while you were in renovation mode. That would have been way to exciting in a bad way to even think about. At least now your home is better prepared to ride out the blow.