Thursday, December 16, 2021

So far...so good?

It was kind of a strange night... the winds picked up as it got dark out. There wasn't supposed to be lightening, but my cell phone lit up again and again with new warnings.
Lightening strike 1 mile from your location. 

Tornado watch until 11 PM. [Tornadoes actually happened, but not where I am]
High Winds Warning
Severe Thunderstorm Warning

I think my Weather Bug app just kept them coming. 7 notifications at one time.

I didn't really need my cell phone to tell me that something was going on. I only had to listen and look out the porch window. I could hear the howling of the wind above us and gusts of wind hitting the house.

I listened carefully. There are two tree west of our house that need to be taken down. Had the winds hit in July while they were full of leaves it would have been a different story. I'm positive the trees would have come down or portions of them would have hit the house.

At 5AM, it was 55 degrees here. Within two hours it has dropped to 30 degrees and the winds are still gusting to 45 mph. I think this is called a Flash Freeze. But at least we didn't have rain to go with it.

Finally it is just beginning to get light. I can see the mules and they are standing quietly in the shelter of the hillside. So far so good. I can see a bucket that somehow got blown up the hill to the north. Branches from the pines are scattered in random patterns across different sections of the yard. Some are scattered to the south east in complete opposition to the direction of the wind gusts.

There is a downspout that is not where it is supposed to be and a piece of sheet metal that moved from the junk pile to the outdoor hydrant. 

The mules will have to wait for their breakfast until the winds die down a bit or their hay will be blown away.

I wonder how many folks lost outdoor Christmas Decorations, you know, like those blow up Santas?



19 comments:

  1. Glad you made it through the worst of the storm. And that the two trees didn't fall on your house.
    Stay safe!

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  2. Your weather should blow through sometime today. There is a whole yard of blow ups on my way to the grocery store, during the day they look like lumps of fabric, I have not been by there at night. Hope you didn't lose power...strange storms for this time of year, I heard a bank someplace in Southern MN was damaged not sure what town it was in. Take a nap!!

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  3. Anonymous10:01 AM

    I am very relieved that at this time everyone is ok after the scary night. We had the thundersnow and rain and also the flash freeze. Now it is just snowing which made driving back from Hubby’s eye appointment hairy. So relieved to be back home again. Stay safe!!!

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    1. Argh on that flash freeze. We froze quickly but the wind dried it out so there was no ice on the gravel road. I heard it was ugly north of here.
      Glad you are safe.

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  4. I didn't think it was ever going to stop blowing. The speed of it was amazing and continual. My neighbor has too many lights and they seemed to survive even though they swayed back and forth for hours.

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  5. Glad everyone is safe in your neck of the woods!! How did Charlie do?

    Our local news warned people for at least two days to put blow up decor (and other stuff) away overnight. No doubt anyone who left them out found them damaged/not in their yard.

    I took down the one feeder on my feeding pole that I knew would spill seed, and unexpectedly found a suet roof & a couple screens tossed on the ground in the morning. Now I know. Funny, my moms feeder stand is in the wide open and unaffected. I can see one tree down on the paths from the house, too windy to walk the trails. I am sure there are more. All very minor.

    Hopefully the wind will calm down for all of us before dark.

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    1. Charlie did NOT like it. He snuggled in with me tight as he could. We were told to be careful locally too. Of course that is just common sense. I never thought the downspouts would travel like they must have.

      I'll be headed out to try and feed the critters in the woods. A long drag of the hay sled, but at least it may not end up in another county.

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    2. Aww, poor baby. I was hopeful that he wouldn't be as affected as the loud bangs. Our dogs were oblivious. Nemo on the other hand trashed his stall the past two nights in a row. Sigh.

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    3. Our mules will try to tear apart a pen if they are left indoors for a night. Crazy critters! Is Nemo okay?
      Charlie gets over it rather quickly, a good cuddle on the couch helps. :)

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    4. Nemo is okay. I think. He is a highly sensitive/intuitive horse. Something was/is definitely bothering him. Will keep a watchful eye, just incase it is something else.

      I am so glad Charlie can be comforted. Not the case with all dogs.

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  6. Lost power for a few hours, but mostly the winds were just loud here ( thankfully) No trees down, no damage to any houses that I noticed. Definitely loud and scary... especially after Kentucky. Cheyrl thinks that the warnings were a reaction to the Kentucky thing. Glad to hear it passed over you guys fairly quickly as well. Now, We brace for the cold! ( it is 40 degrees colder now... more like normal December.)

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    1. We lost the top of a tree .. not near the house, and some downspouts that must have traveled to another planet. The winds haven't stopped but they are a bit less.

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  7. Glad you are okay. Now just a mess to deal with. And glad the trees stood through it. We had high winds last Friday or Saturday. Whatever night we had grandkids sleepover. The plan was to look at light displays but most had announced they were closed and taking things down to protect them. I did see some damaged residential displays later on driving through town. We only decorate our porch so it is easy up/easy down.

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    1. For the first time in 26 years I guess they closed the Festival of Lights in LaCrosse because of the weather too. I'll see tomorrow what got blown around on our long drive to and from the VA clinics.

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  8. Glad you made it thru that stormy night. We did too, although we both woke up about 3 am when we heard the winds banging something around outside...it was our neighbor's lawn furniture! then I just laid there in bed listening to the wind howling and praying that it would end soon. I finally fell back to sleep at about 430 am. We didn't lose power...I am amazed and so grateful for that. Take good care....hope you got your sweet mules fed! Where are you located?

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    Replies
    1. The Driftless Region of WI. We are not far from the Kickapoo River.

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