Friday, December 18, 2015

That Damned Wind





No that's not a picture of my barn roof. I stole that from an article about an incident that happened not too far away from the Small-Hold a while back.

Of all the good things I can say about the Small-Hold the wind certainly isn't one of them. It's a constant companion around here, except at night which I hear is normal but still makes no sense to me. I mean you would think if the sun causes the earth to warm up and creates wind then you would get one in the opposite direction as it cooled right? OK I know it doesn't work that way but still.

Now I know we live on the edge of the great plains but we also live on the edge of the Ozark Plateau and there are plenty of trees around here to break up this wind but that just ain't happenin. It's been so bad the last year or so that now instead of looking at forecast temperatures and rain I actually make sure to check the estimated wind speeds as well,

I have traveled a good deal around the plains states and while I know we are not alone with dealing with winds, I have yet to find a location that's actually more windy. Several rate right up there with us however like Salina, Ks., Grand Island, NE, the entire Eastern half of S.Dakota etc. Still there has to be someplace worse on the wind-o-meter scale out there. I know some tornadoes have had some clocked speeds in the 300+ department and some observatory got a good one waaaay up at the top of some mountain, but where is the highest average ground speed in America located?

Now looking it up by city says Boston has the highest average at 12.3 MPH. Hmmm 12 MPH wind speed around here doesn't even count as wind so something ain't right here.

Sow hat do you guys think? I know around here they don't even call it a windy day until the speed is breaking 30MPH. Gusts of 50 to 60 MPH are considered only mildly windy and hardly get noticed.

How's your part of the country?

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!


20 comments:

  1. being on top of a mountain we get a lot of gales, very little wind breaks or shelter around the place, the previous owners let the hedge lines grow into trees now we are trying to get hedges back in so the animals can use them for shelter :-)

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    1. Dawn - I just wish we had some excuse for all the wind like you. Only thing I can figure is we are within the range of the river that seems to keep a steady current going.

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  2. Been unseasonably warm here, major front moved through last night, temps are dropping and we have high winds blowing from the NE. Then later next week, its supposed to warm up again and be near record highs on Christmas... Yuck!

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    1. JuGM - It's been cold the last few days here but suppose to warm up again Sunday. Was a bit too windy (of course) for me to finish up the last two hives that need wrapping so I was a little miffed at the wind :0

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  3. It gets windy here but we are several miles from the Blue Ridge mountains so we miss some of it that hits further out in the old tobacco areas where the ground and wind are different. The mountain does little to stop a deratio as it just comes on anyway in a straight line and takes down what ever it hits. More often than not the wind doesn't blow much here and that is good as I really don't like working in the wind.

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    1. Sf - I have just gotten used to it I guess but Winter winds really do me in fast. If it's under 60 degrees I always wear my fur hat with the ear flaps because my ears can't handle cold wind at all especially the right one.

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    2. Your wind got here last night and blew over a big tree by the old garage and a root lifted a corner of the building several feet in the air. Something else to work on now but at least I will get some low quality wood out of the work as it was a hollow maple.

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    3. Sf - Man those Maples and Box Elders do the most damage to buildings. Almost every time I see a tree down on someone's house or buildings it's one of those. I been removing any of them we have within reach of a structure.

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  4. We get it with the Cold Fronts blowing in from the North (Blue Northers) and the winds from the south/southeast and southwest with the warm fronts from the Gulf.

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    1. TB - Those South winds are nice here in the Winter but I remember them during the drought of 2012 they were terrible then.

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  5. We regularily get winds off the mountains coming across the prairie that hit 60mph sustained speed and just much higher.

    We had obe freak storm a couple summers ago that hit 120mph and took roofs off houses and I ended up with someones grain silo in my yard. The couple who got it live about 3 miles away... which explains how banged up it was. That storm took down 300 feet of fencing.

    Winter storms sculpt the snow into weird drifts. I had one last year that was tall enough you could walk up it and over the 8 foot chaun link fence and keep walking another 30 feet to the out building and step onto the roof at the 12 foot eaves.

    Exile1981

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    1. Exile - 60 MPH winds here are routine like yours. We rarely if ever get interesting snow drifts though.Either the snow is too wet here to drift or we just don't get enough to make it all that interesting. I have seen some large ones occasionally but never all that interesting like you describe.

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    2. Leonardo Dicapria was in the news yesterday complaining about visiting the city near us. He claimed global warming. The one nice bit about our winds is we get Chinooks. They are temperature inversions in winter lasting anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. The chinook winds blow in strong and then the temp will go from -20C to +15C in a short time. Everyone goes out and enjoys it while it lasts... we make sure the kids get tossed out for fresh air and burn off energy.

      Exile1981

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  6. read patriot update on cell phone purchases then about sheriff and bomb squad called to forest in mo. might be near you. heard on survivalist blog that mo is overrun with them.

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    1. I read that. Hundreds of cell phones in several areas

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    2. Oh they tried buying them in a few places around from just East of KC to Macon Missouri and on down through Columbia and Jefferson city to the Cape area. Supposedly some were asking about the dam and if people could get close to it too.

      as far as being over run well I never see any. There are of course some in St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia and KC. I know Columbia does have a Mosque and I heard they were building one in Joplin too. If I was a muzzy though I wouldn't want to be in Missouri when the SHTF to be honest.

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  7. It is always windy here, comes off the mountain range and across the valley. The big barn next door, when they first built it, were at the point of having it all framed up and putting the shingles on (in 1916) when it was reduced to rubble from a wind storm. And on our place, several years ago, had some outbuildings that were upended and sent into the hay field. These wind storms suddenly appear and disappear just as fast. No tapering off in velocity, they just quit. I've never seen anything like it.

    But some storms roll in and last for a couple of days. I am always thankful that the outbuildings & the little greenhouse are still standing by morning light. But it sure does clean out the dead wood out of the poplars.










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    1. Hobo - It seems what we would call normal high winds rate about 50MPH. Above that and people start taking notice but hitting 60 is fairly common. Anything under 30 and no one even mentions it.

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  8. Here in the UP of Michigan we have a constant breeze of maybe 5 to 10mph. We are just off Lake Superior which is the driving force of our weather. If you have never been up this way, Lake Superior didn't get that name for no reason. It is an inland sea, complete with amazing ice flows in the winter. Back a couple of years ago it was doubtful it would completely thaw for the summer.

    Merry CHRIST mas to you and your family and all the other regular readers.

    Carl in the UP

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    1. Carl - Can't say I have much experience around Superior in Winter BUT I did live close to Greenbay and Oshkosh so I have some experience with lake effect snow and such. It's brutal I know, and yes winds that most times put the ones I deal with here to shame I suspect.

      Merry Christmas to you and yours as well!!!!

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