Severe Weather Threat For 2020

[WiscWoody]

We finally got our first real thunderstorms the last 2 nights, and by the looks of things it might be the only for the year. It seems every year in Northern Alberta we get less thunderstorms. Yet southern Alberta gets pummeled harder every year. This June they had the worst hailstorm in Canadian history, $1.2 billion in damages.

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House insurance is becoming extremely expensive here, 6 of Canada's 10 costliest disasters have happened here in Alberta.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-hailstorm-costly-damage-1.5642317#:~:text=Storm%20shredded%20siding%20on%20homes%2C%20smashed%20windows%20and%20destroyed%20farmers'%20crops&text=The%20hailstorm%20that%20hit%20Calgary%20on%20June%2013%20cost%20at,the%20Insurance%20Bureau%20of%20Canada

.

Wow, tennis ball sized hail like that is insane!! Imagine the noise it made as it hit cars and roofs! Just small 5/8" hail we got recently was very loud on my roof. I have been paying around $50 a month for insurance for my small but nice house for the last decade or so but my deductible is $2500. I miss the days 30 years ago when deductibles were a thousand dollars.

 

[ABMax24]

Wow, hail like that is insane!! Imagine the noise it made as it hit cars and roofs! Just small 5/8" hail we got recently was very loud on my roof. I have been paying around $50 a month for insurance for my small but nice house for the last decade or so but my deductible is $2500. I miss the days 30 years ago when deductibles were a thousand dollars.

There was video of it online and it seemed pretty bad. They call it hailstorm alley for a reason. I pay about $125/month on our house, but I had to switch insurance companies and go to a $2,500 deductible to get that, and I've got a lot of things going for me to get that low rate, 3 smoke detectors, fire hydrant 3 houses down, within 8 km from the fire hall. But I expect to see an increase on my next renewal. My sister and her boyfriend just bought an acreage and they will get the increased rate from this storm, they will be in the $250/month range.

Hailstorm Alley - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[begreen]

Nasty stuff happening in PA/NJ/NY right now. Lots of power outages. Stay safe out there.
There's going to be a lot of fresh firewood available tomorrow.

 

[mcdougy]

House Insurance is largely based on your credit rating as well as value of property. I believe usa auto insurance uses the same system and insurance companies in Canada are wanting to use credit rating for auto as well. Nothing like keeping g their foot on your head when a person needs to catch a break.

 

[ABMax24]

House Insurance is largely based on your credit rating as well as value of property. I believe usa auto insurance uses the same system and insurance companies in Canada are wanting to use credit rating for auto as well. Nothing like keeping g their foot on your head when a person needs to catch a break.

That varies by jurisdiction. In Alberta an insurance company requires explicit consent to use your credit rating as a factor for rates. As a result most insurance must be prepaid either the month or year ahead to ensure everyone pays. My insurance company requires me to pay my auto insurance a full year at a time. That being said rates are determined by risk, more claims, speeding tickets and especially DUI's drive rates through the roof. For home insurance particularly flood insurance risk is judged by previous claims in your postal code.

 

[paulnlee]

Lost power for 8 hours, batt dead on generator, no hand crank. At least I could fire up the TL-300 and cook some supper

 

[johneh]

Lost power for 8 hours, batt dead on generator, no hand crank. At least I could fire up the TL-300 and cook some supper

And that's why mine cycles a self-test once a week
Glade you could eat and got your power back.

 

[kennyp2339]

Working like a mad man, we're all doing the all to familiar 16hr shifts, to me this storm (outages / damage seen) seems to fall just above Irene around here, there are places with only a few limbs down, then other spots down the road we're its all out chaos (maybe heavier down burst or small tornadic wind) but either way its a lot.
There also seems to be a ton of transmission outages, I think those right of ways through the wooded hills are making things very difficult to access.
One of the tougher things that are hampering a lot, is working while this virus is in place, many hotels are still closed, some that are open are completely booked with people that have no power, so there's limited rooms for the actual mutual aide coming into the state to help. Also its tough on the individual worker, people are coming out of there houses to air the grievances, while we're patrolling, normally we would stop to give a small update of what our intentions are, since the virus is doing what its doing, we're not stopping, almost everyone that comes out does not have a mask and they immediately swarm our trucks. so we're doing what we think is smarter, but it certainly looks like we're jerks to the actual customer cause we just keep going, plus we cannot afford w/ time to stop at every single house to explain to who ever while they pick up sticks in there yard.
I expect the stress relations from the customer w/ no power to the utility co to be going up, I might make a few cardboard signs to hang on the trucks specifically stating to keep back.

 

[begreen]

Yes, the situation is much more complicated due to coronavirus and the scope is wide. There definitely were some tornados along with the winds. We had a major windstorm in WA many years back that took out high tension lines coming straight from the dams. It was tough work getting those lines restored. Power was out here for about 5-6 days. Crews from at least 5 states were called in to restore power.

Stay safe out there. Linemen are heros, they need to be protected and helped. Thanks for your good work.

 

[vinny11950]

I have never seen this much tree damage from a major storm in my lifetime. A lot of oaks broke in half. If a tree had defects inside, this storm sure exposed them. I would say 95% of the toppled trees I have seen are oaks. My neighborhood also has a large amount of London Plane trees which stood strong and flexible mostly, with only one that I saw cut in half.

The weird thing is the storm isn't the biggest to come through. I have experienced bigger storms that have lasted much longer and done less damage.

My theory is because the storm moved so fast South to North, the direction of the wind gusts battered the trees in one direction in the beginning, and then battered them from the opposite at the end. Several neighbors still have trees leaning on their houses. On towering oak on a neighbors yard came down on the street side at an intersection, taking out the traffic lights on both corners. Lucky for the house the tree was on, as it would have easily crushed it.

 

[begreen]

Friends in lower Westchester just got power back this morning.

 

[vinny11950]

yeah, every one is pretty unhappy with the speed of the power companies response but they are doing all they can with the resources they have. Like I said before, this was an unusual storm in the amount of trees it brought down. I am sure the power companies did not account for that much damage. Maybe going forward they will, and be more aggressive in cutting trees close to power lines, which in turn will upset the neighbors who like the trees.

2 years ago, the city sent in the tree pruning crews into my neighborhood. They went block by block and took down any tree that looked to be in bad shape. They cut limbs close to anything. I was amazed at how much cutting they did.

 

[begreen]

yeah, every one is pretty unhappy with the speed of the power companies response but they are doing all they can with the resources they have. Like I said before, this was an unusual storm in the amount of trees it brought down. I am sure the power companies did not account for that much damage. Maybe going forward they will, and be more aggressive in cutting trees close to power lines, which in turn will upset the neighbors who like the trees.

2 years ago, the city sent in the tree pruning crews into my neighborhood. They went block by block and took down any tree that looked to be in bad shape. They cut limbs close to anything. I was amazed at how much cutting they did.

Our local power company has crews contracted to do that too. Heard them working the line this morning.

 

[begreen]

And then there was the midwest derecho. The devastation to the corn crop is major, including the big silos that store it. Still no power for many thousands. Early estimates say the derecho flattened at least one-third of Iowa's crops or about 10 million acres!!

After Devastating Derecho, Midwest Takes Stock Of The Damage

A powerful windstorm flattened crops, toppled trees and crumpled grain silos. Days later, communities are still assessing the damage.

www.npr.org

 

[vinny11950]

And then there was the midwest derecho. The devastation to the corn crop is major, including the big silos that store it. Still no power for many thousands. Early estimates say the derecho flattened at least one-third of Iowa's crops or about 10 million acres!!

After Devastating Derecho, Midwest Takes Stock Of The Damage

A powerful windstorm flattened crops, toppled trees and crumpled grain silos. Days later, communities are still assessing the damage.

www.npr.org

That's horrible.

 

[kennyp2339]

We just entered meteorological late summer here, I've now been pealed to northern weather maps, seeing what the cold has been doing, or whether it has been building, and indeed it has been. Expect the seasons first cool shot in the next week affection the upper mid-west then sliding east to the northeast, nothing crazy out of the normal, just the reminder of where we're all heading.
I also enjoy seeing the uptick on the forum, lots of newb's asking questions, looking at stoves, getting busy, to bad now is not the time to start splitting wood for this year.

 

[thewoodlands]

We just entered meteorological late summer here, I've now been pealed to northern weather maps, seeing what the cold has been doing, or whether it has been building, and indeed it has been. Expect the seasons first cool shot in the next week affection the upper mid-west then sliding east to the northeast, nothing crazy out of the normal, just the reminder of where we're all heading.
I also enjoy seeing the uptick on the forum, lots of newb's asking questions, looking at stoves, getting busy, to bad now is not the time to start splitting wood for this year.

We had two mornings this week with a low of 50 with a high today of 63, this weather feels great.

 

[orlkc]

We had two mornings this week with a low of 50 with a high today of 63, this weather feels great.

The drought here has made many of the trees turn and drop some leaves early. Glints of yellow birch leaves in the canopy now, and combined with a few cool low humidity mornings makes it feel like early fall now. I expect we'll get a few more blasts of sticky ick still, but progress!

 

[thewoodlands]

The drought here has made many of the trees turn and drop some leaves early. Glints of yellow birch leaves in the canopy now, and combined with a few cool low humidity mornings makes it feel like early fall now. I expect we'll get a few more blasts of sticky ick still, but progress!

It's the same here @orlkc , this morning we had 45.2. I'm sure we'll have more hot weather but nothing like we had all summer.

 

[thewoodlands]

Not a big chance .

 

[ABMax24]

Was anyone else affected by the big wind storm that hit Iowa a few weeks ago? Seems like a caused a lot of damage out there.

On the upside for us it feels like fall is on its way, so the chance of thunderstorms has pretty much passed. It was only a few degrees above freezing here this morning, and the perpetual fall winds seem to have arrived. First frost is likely only a few weeks away, and in 2 months we'll probably have snow on the ground again that will last until April.

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[kennyp2339]

Patterns - chaos - definition - doing the samething over and over again, expecting different results each time. With that said, in my 35 years of existence on this earth, I've picked up a few things here and there, when I see the Rocky Mtns - particularly Denver Metro area get early winter conditions I tend to see a rough winter in new england area, the science behind it is simple - western ridge and a wacked pacific jet stream, mother nature showed her cards early this year.. get ready in the east.

 

[RobbieB]

I'll be happy when the temperature drops below 100 and the smoke goes away.

 

[mcdougy]

I'll be happy when the temperature drops below 100 and the smoke goes away.

What a terrible scenario these forest fires are.....i hope it all ends soon

 

[thewoodlands]

Patterns - chaos - definition - doing the samething over and over again, expecting different results each time. With that said, in my 35 years of existence on this earth, I've picked up a few things here and there, when I see the Rocky Mtns - particularly Denver Metro area get early winter conditions I tend to see a rough winter in new england area, the science behind it is simple - western ridge and a wacked pacific jet stream, mother nature showed her cards early this year.. get ready in the east.

They say wet and wild for our area whatever that means. We'll get our snow,cold and ice like the winters we've been having.

We can get a good snowfall in November but usually it's after the second week of December. When we first moved here almost 17 years ago, we received a chit load more snow, didn't have enough room for snow storage but that problem has been taking care of.