At times here in the Sierra Foothills, during the winter months, we have some pretty heavy duty winds. The results of these high winds can bring trees down. Limbs just snap off the trees leaving the remains for us to clean up and clear. We value the wood when it is oak, but find ourselves sad when we see them damaged. The digger pines, contrary to the belief of some, do come down, and I wanted to share with you the aftermath of high winds here in the foothills.
These photos are after a storm where the wind speeds hit 80 m.p.h. I had been at work when the power went out around 3:00 in the afternoon. A co-worker and I watched as the rain was blowing sideways. With the power out, we all headed home. When I got here, my husband told me what the wind speeds were due to his trusty weather station, and then asked if I noticed the trees. Grabbing my camera I went out to walk around. The winds had died down so I would be safe.
This photo is from a digger pine in the front yard. The branch snapped and the branch came down just missing our neighbors well house.
One huge limb
The limb in the photo was about 40 feet long and had a circumference of 18 inches at the thickest part. Here is another view.
Another view
And one last view.
One more view
Here is a photo showing where the limb broke. This is up on the tree about 50 feet above the ground.
Where the limb snapped
Looking into the backyard, I see that another digger pine snapped. This one missed our back deck by about 6 inches. The tree is about 35 feet from our house. The branch took out part of an oak below it. It took out the fencing on the vegetable garden. The impact was so great that some of the branches impaled the ground. They were so deep we could not remove them and they are still there today.
A digger in the back
We have a grove of oak at one side of our yard, and taking a look in that direction you can see the debris of broken limbs laying on the ground.
Downed oak
It took us days to clean up. On the morning that we cleared the limb from our neighbors yard it was pouring rain, which then turned into a blizzard by the time we finished removing just this one.
Each year, while we look forward to winter and the snow, we hope that we do not have another wind event like this one!
Take care today! The week is almost over and there is the weekend to look forward to! Thanks for visiting and have a great Thursday!
I remember the winds well from the hurricanes when we lived in Florida. The loss of tree limbs is sad but better the trees than the loss of a human life. Glad you were safe for high winds can be most devastating as I am sure you know.
We were lucky!
Glad to hear that the damage was not any greater than it was.
Just a slice of life in the foothills! We love it here, even with its challenges!
Wow, great photos. That is a scary consequence of high winds. I’m glad you didn’t suffer any more damage than you did. Have a great weekend.
You too my dear! Did the snow melt?
Yes, it has melted today as we had a good sunny blue sky day!
I am still waiting on the snow here! February might bring this in for us!
80 Mile per hour winds classify it as a F0 tornado or a F1 Hurricane……………wow. Found these classification on NOAA’s website for the F (Fujita) scale, and the damage you noted in your photos supports the wind speeds used in the scale. Luckily you only had trees damaged, could have been worse.
It could have been indeed! We were very lucky!