Sunday, January 12, 2014

BAYVIEW WINDSTORM



Saturday dawned with the forecast of high winds. Around 1:30 the breeze kicked up. By about 4:30, powerful winds entered the area. By midnight, winds on Lake Pend Oreille reached 90 mph and 65 mph in Bayview. Thankfully, the power didn't go out here during the NFL playoffs, but stuff banging off my roof suggested that all was not calm.

Around 4:30 or so, I heard thumps and bangs as unknown objects caromed off my roof.  Various items that were on my deck found new homes as well.

As I watched the games I suddenly got an inspiration. "Herb, move your car from beneath the white fir towering above it." I did and it came through unscathed.

I then logged on to the Bayview Naval  Research Detachment weather stations for accurate information on the temperatures and wind velocities. I found 82 mph at the deep moor station north of Cape Horn in the main channel of Lake Pend Oreille and 58 mph gusts in Scenic Bay.

Later that night the Deep Moore station recorded a 90 mph gust.

Waking up this morning produced a calm with no unoccupied boats floating in the bay. Still it is good that we can withstand gusts of that magnitude and come out unscathed.

The LPO Current Weather is available on the internet at: http://lpo.dt.navy.mil/ for those of you interested.

**Monday am 11:15 a gust of 77mph hit the lake.

No comments: