windy everywhere this year?

Pat

Is it just here in north Texas, or is it windy all across the U.S.? Today,
we had wind gusts to 51 mph. Just to get out of a car you have to fight to
get the door open. Ride a bicycle? Hah! I did on Tuesday, when the wind
gusts were "just" up to 35 mph, but this today is ridiculous.....

Pat

jobst.brandt@stanfordalumni.org

Pat who? wrote:

> Is it just here in north Texas, or is it windy all across the U.S.?
> Today, we had wind gusts to 51 mph. Just to get out of a car you
> have to fight to get the door open. Ride a bicycle? Hah! I did on
> Tuesday, when the wind gusts were "just" up to 35 mph, but this
> today is ridiculous.....

For more than a month we have had unusually high winds from unusual
directions. That along with stinking hot weather for a day or two
followed by cold weather requiring long sleeves and pants.

http://tinyurl.com/5egnjn

Europe has been suffering from similar conditions with more than
average rain and snow, while snowing only at high elevation such as
twelve feet deep at the top of the Stelvio and Matterhorn-Gornergrat
where skiing has been a flop because there is only gravel below on the
ski run that looks so great above. It's snowing like mad now.

http://www.topin.ch/scripts/big_img.php?bild=zer.jpg (Gornergrat)
http://webcam.popso.it/stelvio.php?PASSOALTO2 (Stelvio)

These must be viewed at daylight hours in Central European Time.

Jobst Brandt

Papa Tom

We had a few windier than normal weeks here in Long Island, New York, but it
seems to be calm and turning to spring now. The last really windy day was
last Saturday, when my wife and I had quite a tough time pedaling straight
into the wind on a day of temperatures in the upper 70s.

In general, this countrywide escalation in the number of tornadoes and other
violent windstorms is a bit unnerving...

Pat

"Papa Tom" <> We had a few windier than normal weeks here in Long Island,
New York, but it
> seems to be calm and turning to spring now. The last really windy day was
> last Saturday, when my wife and I had quite a tough time pedaling straight
> into the wind on a day of temperatures in the upper 70s.
>
> In general, this countrywide escalation in the number of tornadoes and
> other violent windstorms is a bit unnerving...

Sorry, but some of the words you use don't resonate with me. For example
'Upper 70's". I am pretty sure that happens during the dark hours, not the
daytime hours. And "calm"--what exactly is that, anyway?

And, "turning to Spring" ? It's June in Texas and Spring has long gone!
(unless you consider 95 degree temps to be Spring, sigh).

I have come (in my mind) to an accommodation with the wind where I don't
mind (so much) the headwinds because all I do is gear down about 4 times.
It's the gusting side winds that worry me. When I have to ride tilted,
leaning into the wind and then a sudden gust comes along, it gets downright
scary. Once, my entire bike and I moved about 2 feet to the downwind side
when that occurred. On Tuesday, when I last rode, I turned so that I had a
tailwind and the absence of wind sound was disturbing. It was so eerily
quiet all of a sudden!

And, last night, deep into the night, the wind was still churning around. I
thought wind usually died down at dusk!

I hope Robbie Knievel doesn't kill himself with that stunt this weekend. He
plans to jump over a bunch of HumVees on his motorcycle, but with this wind,
he just might come down somewhere he didn't intend to land....

Pat in TX
>
>

Papa Tom

>>>>Sorry, but some of the words you use don't resonate with me. For
>>>>example
'Upper 70's". I am pretty sure that happens during the dark hours, not the
daytime hours. And "calm"--what exactly is that, anyway?<<<<<

LOL. I travel to Texas quite often on business, so I know what you mean.
Fortunately, for us Yankees here in NEW York, a thing called "Spring"
actually came around this year. Temps have actually been quite comfortbale
for several days now, although tomorrow, the mercury will explode to 88
degrees and the humidity will probably be as high as it can possibly go
without actually raining.

Winds have definitely died down, though. I was really psyched to fly a kite
with my 16 month old grandson last weekend, but I couldn't find a constant
enough wind to keep the danged thing in the air. Of course, that wasn't the
case while I was riding earlier that same day, when those "side winds" you
described were ferrocious.

TM

killermike

Pat wrote:
> Is it just here in north Texas, or is it windy all across the U.S.? Today,
> we had wind gusts to 51 mph. Just to get out of a car you have to fight to
> get the door open. Ride a bicycle? Hah! I did on Tuesday, when the wind
> gusts were "just" up to 35 mph, but this today is ridiculous.....

Much the same in the UK this year. It's going to take a lot of pleasure
out of cycling if this is to be the new long-term weather pattern.

--
http://www.unmusic.co.uk Michael Reed -- technology, gender, and geek
culture freelance writer