A little reminder to do something else when it's windy

[Bwildered]

This would tickle if it got you unexpectedly

 

[madhatte]

I observe what I call my "Three-branch rule". First branch hits the ground, don't freak out, it happens. Second branch hits the ground, you've been warned. Third branch hits the ground, go find somewhere else to be, because that's not gonna stop for awhile. By "branch" I mean something big enough to cause injury, not just a twig or two shaking free from the canopy.

The Beaufort Scale is also a helpful tool. Anything above about a 6 on the Beaufort Scale is cause for caution.

 

[Oliver Durand]

Sonny James sez "don't cut timber on a windy day".

 

[northmanlogging]

Think Gologit said it best, "if the tops are moving stay home" This of course mostly applies to timber falling, but if branches are breaking for sure find something better to do with your time.

Around here 20 mph winds can uproot trees, especially if there has been disturbances such as logging or grading near by, soils are soft and roots are shallow

 

[Jan-Sietze]

When the wind blows, I prefer to go to the windmills



Also pretty few trees to saw there ...

 

[big hank]

I was digging line around some logging units in North Idaho. It was pretty windy and rainy, my boss won't call it until it starts lightning. We were pretty close to getting done and the wind picks up and snaps a perfectly healthy leave tree in half about 50 yards away from us. Needless to say we got the **** out of there

 

[fool skip]

My partner and I were cutting a unit of overstory yellow pine when a lightning storm moved over us about 9 am. I could see the pickup from where I was working and I was just waiting for my partner to chicken out first. Well, I chickened out. I moved my saw and gear to the next punkin I was going to cut and hid my tools under a grouse ladder Piss fir next to the pine. My partner showed up at the truck about the same time as me and we took off for the salmon hole. When I went back to work the next morning that big yellow pine I was fixen to cut had got struck in the lightning storm. It had a big zipper running down it and had thrown dirt and debris all over my tools which were about 20 feet away. I don't know if it happened 10 minutes or 2 hours after we left. By the time we finished cutting the unit we found 4 freshly struck green trees. No fires. After that I was a little more respectful of Summer lightning storms. Chinook fishing is great during a summer storm. Seems to activate them. Just stay on the bank and out of the aluminum drift boat.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Around here 30-40mph winds is just a decent breeze. We get 60+ mph winds most winters, have seen 100mph gusts even.

One winter I was working on a shed. Ran over to Lowes and bought a few sheets of OSB, Was a nice day. Left at 2 for work (worked 3rd shift 3-11pm) and didn't think much of leaving the OSB in the truck. Got home that evening, was blowing hard.

The sheets flew out of the truck, busted my back window and scuffed up the cab pretty bad. I found one sheet about 300ft away stuck in the tree tops. It flew out of the truck, over my house and into the trees! Found another sheet that summer in the woods by my neighbors. The rest of them, never found them.

Wind doesn't bother much when logging, but we are not hand falling. I've had a tree hit the roof of the skidder, even with my ear muffs on it was quite loud.

 

[northmanlogging]

Back in Wyoming, we used to watch them tin sheds roll down the street, get a good wind going and folks would forget to close the doors on em, turned em into a parachute...

Then the pieces would get stuck in the storm drains so the entire street would flood in about half an hour, soon as it cleared folks could innertube down the streets