Storm Damage

View looking to the southwest lot line.

Here are a couple of backyard shots taken today shortly before 6 p.m. during sundown - not the best exposure and not the clearest, sorry.  I wanted to try and give you an idea of what it looks like with tons of  small and not so small branches down all over the yard.  It will be a big clean-up.  Yech.  That "pipe" is the bottom half of my umbrella which was tucked away safe in the garage.  The pipe is anchored by a cast-iron base which didn't budge despite the strong winds.



View looking toward the north/northwest lot line.  A fleeting glimpse of
squirrel can be seen on the left - a sort of fuzzy blur.  A heavy metal
planter in the form of a kitty with head on a spring was blown over.
That's the first time in 20 years that has happened!

 It's not over, but the Great Midwest Cyclone of 2010 will blow out of here (I hope) by tomorrow morning, with rapidly dropping temperatures following close behind.  Sigh.  It is really NASTY out there.  The winds were even stronger today than yesterday.  In fact, we broke an all-time record for low barometer reading for a "November gale" in the Midwest.  Remember the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior, the wreck that Gordon Lightfoot made famous in 1975?  That was the second lowest barometer reading on record for a "November gale."

So far - fingers crossed - I haven't lost any major limbs off my trees and the house and its siding are still intact. But it sure is roaring out there tonight.  I thought the wind was supposed to die down after sunset, not get worse!  This storm isn't moving away without a fight!  The peak windgust in my area reached 81 mph and about 30 miles to the south in Racine an F1 tornado did some damage yesterday.  It was hard enough maneuvering to and from work out in the open with winds gusting to 40 mph.  I'm no lightweight, but I had to hang on for dear life this morning when I got off the bus downtown and this evening while waiting for the bus downtown to come home, as the winds were even stronger.  The wind-tunnel effect created by the tall buildings in close proximity to Lake Michigan was multiplied many times by this fierce wind-storm.  I count my blessings that I was able to wait out the rain yesterday morning (it stopped about 7:30 a.m. or so and I was able to get to work without getting drenched) and the rain hasn't come back.  Up north Minnesota hasn't been so fortunate - wet, heavy snow, and blizzard conditions in the Dakotas.  Whew! 

I'll be grateful when I can finally get some sleep and not have to worry about one of my trees being blown into the house.