Bonavista: Batten down the hatches!

[Jay Freedman]

While reading the Eye on the Storm blog by meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson (https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021 ... hits-baja/), I noticed that Hurricane Larry (!) is likely to pass over or near St. John's, Newfoundland. I realized that St. John's isn't that far from Bonavista, home of the inimitable Chris Greaves.

There is a hurricane warning from Environment and Climate Change Canada at https://goo.gl/maps/TJjPp1eS9Kto8ti2A that shows Bonavista somewhat outside the warning area, but I'd bet on significant winds there sometime tonight or tomorrow. Be careful!

[HansV]

Let's hope Chris remains unscathed, but perhaps it'll be the end of his zucchini...

[ChrisGreaves]

Let's hope Chris remains unscathed, but perhaps it'll be the end of his zucchini...

A High Wind in Jamaica
Jay and Hans, thank you both for your kind thoughts.
I will be fine, (I have books and baked beans and a bed), but I have probably looked my last at my eight-foot artichokes
And no, that "sob" is not meant as a tearful smiley.

I am thankful that I have not got around to erecting my turbine generator, otherwise I might have to take it down again! Procrastination Rules!
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

... I realized that St. John's isn't that far from Bonavista, home of the inimitable Chris Greaves.

According to Google maps, 100.00 Km as the crow gets blown backwards.

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Passing directly over 60 Canon Bayley at 0330 hours. (Well, why else is it called "The Landfall Garden House"?)
Should be dead-calm, right? So I can nip out and bring in another pail of rain-water.
Hooray!
(signed) "Just another Blowhard of Bonavista"

[BobH]

Stay safe, Chris!

[ChrisGreaves]

Stay safe, Chris!

0230: I am woken by my chimney caps. These are 18"x`18" sheets of plywood with an old piece of step timber hanging from them down the inside of the red-brick chimneys. The timber is about eight inches wide, 1-1/2 inches thick, and three feet long. Steps like you see leading up to your front door.
Well, one of them is thumping pretty good, which suggests that it is being lifted from the chimney and being dropped down again.
What is surprising (to me) is that when I had the wood stove and oil stove taken out, the apertures at the base of these chimneys (the holes in the walls inside the house), were sealed with wooden plates, caulking and so on, so it's not as if there is an easy passage to suck air out of the house. The chimney caps were placed there as yet-another-inhibitor to air passage in strong winds.

I turned on the toaster, just to check if the power is still on, and then thought "Why not pop a couple of rounds of home-made bread in there and then take it out and spread some home-made marmalade on it before the house blows away.". Made sense to me ...

The view across the valley to the far side, one mile away, looks like a foggy day, but that is what heavy moisture traveling at speed looks like.

In the opposite direction, staring from my northern window at the street, "ships" of spray go scudding straight down my street, from east to west, as each gust seems to harvest water from the road surface.

Fascinating.

Plastic siding, the skin of choice for houses in Newfoundland, responds with a steady drumming. I shall go back to sleep (toast and grapefruit marmalade is my soporific) dreaming of getting rich by cornering the market on xylophone bars and creating a symphonic township ...

[3:30 local time] How odd! ten minutes ago I turned off the light and lay down for my second sleep of the night, and the wind dropped. "Odd!", I thought, "My ears must shut down as part of the sleep process!", but no. The wind has died away completely in the space of fifteen minutes. A glance out of my bedroom window tells me that the tops of my trees are not moving at all. The eye of the storm must be directly overhead (where "directly" means "within five miles"). Apart from being run over by a willy-willy in the wheat belt, I can't recall being at the centre of a disturbance.
Oh well, back to sleep again; again.

And in the ten minutes it took me to type that, a five-second rhythm of light gusts has picked up again, so the second half of the concert is about to begin.. I hope that the lights don't dim (grin!)

Cheers
Chris

[John Gray]

[...] perhaps it'll be the end of his zucchini...

Yay!
Hurricanes can do some good...

[ChrisGreaves]

Hurricanes can do some good...

Well, John, you'll be all 'choked up to read that there is both Good, and Bad news.

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The 'Canes seem to have weathered the 'cane quite well, although after the June 30 cold spell they never did regain fruit. Sigh!
The 'chinni weathered mini-Ida but like the 'Canes, did badly during the cold blast of Aug 30-31, and anyway, bees were in short supply this year, so I can see no fruit on them at all.
The 'Chokes put up a good fight. I can see bits of my shed, which is dis-heartening, The six "Stampede" (with small sunflowers got a kicking. Some of the Skorospelka, or it might even be the Nahodka took some serious blows to the head(s) which pushed them right through the Stampede. Tall Poppy in action.

Strangest of all, during the eye of the storm I swapped rain pails, and the second pail, I see, has not a drop of water in it. The rain lashed us before the eye, but no rain at all after the eye had passed at 0330.

[ChrisGreaves]

While reading the Eye on the Storm blog by meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson (https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021 ... hits-baja/), ...

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We are now well into our third week of strong winds. The two strongest days were, of course, coming from within ten degree of due North. (Note that the wind direction is in units of ten degrees of compass)
If I had wanted Labrador City weather, I would have moved there ...

Almost every day with light rain, two days of serious rain. (Serious rain is defined as a day on which I can lug in at least one 25-litre pail of rain water for human consumption).
Three days ago a chimney cover blew loose. This is a sheet of plywood with a 2.5 foot length of step timber (8" wide 2" thick) suspended by wire to hold it in/on the chimney.

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Those are not snails.
When I rose this morning, I found that my shed was plastered with green leaves blown from the aspen trees.

(signed) "Disgruntled is not the word" of Bonavista.

[LisaGreen]

Good luck Chris!!

Lisa

[ChrisGreaves]

Good luck Chris!!

Never mind "good luck". I need the wind and rain to stop long enough for me to crank up the extension ladder and climb on a slippery roof to re-seat weigh down the chimney cover, else it will decapitate me, I know, before I have mastered Selenium. Have you ever tried mastering Selenium with your head off-line?

As for heightened tension, I saw "Lisa" and panicked off to the Farmer's Almanac
"Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Julian, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, Wanda " So we aren't due for a hurricane of that name for at least another year


But you had me worried there.

Cheers
Chris

[LisaGreen]

LOL!!!

[ChrisGreaves]

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On the other hand we experience strong winds at this time of year.
Last night I suppose that a particularly nasty GUST of wind came at just the right angle and toppled a compost bin.

The bin is a 44-gallon oil drum (steel) and was parked on a couple of baulks - so I could shovel soil from the base while loading rotten food in the top.
The baulks - two each side - have toppled, and the bin has blown away from me in this shot.
You are looking into the base of the bin which, until yesterday, was full-to-the-top. And we have had rain.

So whatever the mass of a 44-gallon load of wet soil, the wind managed to topple it. Streamlined 'though it is ...
Cheers, Chris

[PJ_in_FL]

'Airy ain't it?

[ChrisGreaves]

'Airy ain't it?

It be, an' it bin!
I think that the records are midnight to midnight, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see this early morning's gusts.
N.B. Figures in KM/h

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There we are!
We soared to 12c yesterday; my power bill was a mere $3.84, including cooking!
Cheers, Chris