We had a horrendous wind storm hit northeastern Oklahoma at about midnight last Saturday. Straight winds of 100 mph were recorded and our family, and the dog and cat, were in our “safe space” for not very long.
We didn’t suffer any damage at all although we are getting our roof inspected and might have some tree work to do. Our neighborhood didn’t have much damage either except for trees down. All I can say is thank goodness for underground utilities.
Elsewhere in Tulsa it was a different story. Over 200,000 people lost power. By now over half those have it back and it has been a great response from other states sending their utility crews here to help get power restored. They think that they will have everybody hooked back up by late Saturday afternoon.
Turkey Mountain had a lot of damage. Volunteers got out there with their chain saws and got a lot of the trails cleared. I don’t do chainsaws but I moved some limbs off the trails as I found them.
There are still some “hangers” or “leaners” that will have to be removed by people that know what they are doing. Best to keep an eye up in the air to avoid hazards.
The sounds of chainsaws were all over the place when I made my outing the other day.
Reportedly by now almost all the main trails are open.
Of course it is difficult to pin any particular weather event on global warming but still one wonders. Something new I’ve seen in the last few days is “#ShowYourStripes” a graphic developed by Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading in England. It’s like a bar code showing the yearly variation of temperature from the long term average over a time period.
The global temperature change chart is as follows. Blue means below the long term average and orange is above. The darker the color, the more difference there is. So this is the Global stripes showing data from 1850 and one can definitely see that things are warming up quickly. Keep in mind it is just temperature data and doesn’t say anything why.
So, I jumped in and looked at the Oklahoma data which they have from 1895 and the results surprised me. Oklahoma has had ups and downs over the whole time period. Although there is a definite trend since the year 2000. But there was a previous period back in 1930 or so that had increasing temperatursewhich roughly coincides with the dustbowl.
I find this kind of thing fascinating. Go check it out for your continent, country, state or province at ShowYourStripes.Info. Let me know what you find.
Linking with Skywatch Friday
…wind is a way that nature tries to make us humble. Regarding your Hawaiian trip, most days I don’t know if I’m coming or going!
Great pictures of the downed trees. I’ve had a lot of wind and rain nightly for the last 5 days. As the storm in the Caribbean gets closer, I expect more. Luckily I don’t have to go anywhere and I have lots of books to read.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced wind that high. Glad you and the family are safe. I often marvel at how people (early miners and ranchers and Native Americans before them) survied in the desert, dependent upon water holes and springs (mostly dry now) for survival. Then I have to remind myself that temps and rainfall were very different back then. Planet Earth in changing much too rapidly!
The storms seem to be more intense and do more damage.
I do not like seeing all the trees damaged, Turkey Mountain looks bad.
I hope you stay safe. We finally had some rain today,
Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend!
Glad you have a safe space. Poor Turkey Mountain … sad to see all those trees torn up. I looked at North America and Canada and there was a substantial change in more recent years. Much hotter than it used to be.
the storm’s devastation is very impressive. And the stripe graphic is intriguing as far as Oklahoma is concerned.
Wow, such strong wind damage.
Scary!
Coffee is on, and stay safe.
The thunderstorm squalls also look same way in our place as well. Even though rains are not much, the damage is high
Wow, that was quite a storm! Every time we experienced strong winds and big waves, thoughts of tornado come to mind. Today we have clouds similar to the photo of your Skywatch post on Hawaii.
Few years back there was a thrombus in the forrest not 100m away. It was devastating. There was few places where it downed everything. Several places it was some 20m wide and 100m long mayhem. It seems like these extremes are more common year by year. Keep Safe!
Oh no!
Great photos of the storm ~ glad you and your family were safe ~
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Lotsa trees to clean up! I looked up the data for Virginia, and indeed the temperatures have gone up. I knew that because the weather has changed noticeably during my lifetime.
And here I am completely unaware of it! Glad you only were in the safe place for a short while. Still, since you never know, it must have been worrisome.
Very interesting about the temperature changes. I checked CA and OR, and while there were a few red years, nothing like the latest, especially in CA. Yours definitely has more ups and downs and ups.
I hadn’t even heard about it, just the heat wave. To lose power for a week causes dangerous conditions for many who don’t have access to air conditioning. All those downed trees, too. I did look up the stripes for New York State. Ours are 1895-2022 and things have heated up a lot in the last 10 years or so. This agrees with my perceptions, especially when it comes to our winters.
Glad you didn’t have damage.
Oh…Glad you and your family safe.
Thanks for sharing. Stay safe.
Wind storms can be deadly, this one doesn’t look too bad, we’ve had some strong ones here over the years.
Uy que vientos tan fuertes y destructivos. Te mando un beso.
Fury of nature! Thankfully you and yours are safe. The bars and stripes is an interesting site. This is what I found for India. Quite scary.
https://showyourstripes.info/c/asia/india/all
Thankful that you and your family were safe and not hurt. Winds that strong are deadly if you’re not in a saft place. Turkey Mountain looks like it got some damage to their trees. Take care!
Those kinds of winds are scary and so is the global stripes.