Colville Wind

I have never been in a hurricane or tornado, but some of my neighbors across the valley described the wind the other day as such.

I was up at the Elks last night, having my usual sarsaparilla, when I asked Butch about the wind. He suggested I drive up and see for myself. Butch and a bunch of folks live on a hill, just like ours, only on the opposite side of the valley, about 10 miles from me.     

My first indication of trouble was when every few hundred feet I saw guardrails crushed, by fallen trees.

For miles I would see hillsides unaffected by the wind and others absolutely devastated.

Some trees, 20 to 30 inches in circumference, were snapped 8 feet above the ground...like toothpicks.

Many larger trees had been uprooted and were leaning on houses.

    While looking up what kind of wind does this type of damage, I found "downburst". This or a microburst seems to best describe the storm. Thunderheads with light rain are a common source, same as what we had that day.

Either way it looks like tiddlywinks to me.

Yep, still practicing my panorama on the phone. As you can see, if the wind doesn't snap a tree, it uproots the whole thing.

In the middle of the damage is Black Lake, a place I have gone many times to view moose.

I've been told by a few neighbors that if you drive dirt roads (which I love doing) always carry a chainsaw in case you run across downed trees. Do you think I'd ever heed their advice? Even after Donna and I had to turn around one day after traveling 15 miles on a dirt road, I still haven't bought one.

Lucky for me the vacation home folks on Black Lake beat me up to the lake...lol

The resort lodge at the lake took quite a beating. This damage and three other trees crushed the lodge.

This tree on a ridge fascinated me. Not only snapping it 20 feet up, but also partially stripping the bark. I think to myself how awesome it would be to watch this unfold, but then my common sense starts to say things like "are you out of your freaking mind"!

As I came back into the Colville Valley, I see some of the smoke from the Wenatchee fire about 200 miles south of here starting to drift into our area. Bummer!