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Sunday's Screaming Southeaster


CT Rain

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3 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

that would suck. I'm betting it's back on by tomorrow, but I didn't see one power truck in the area on my way to work.

CMP has a lot of area to cover as widespread as this was, But there is a lot of help on the way and some have already arrived, I feel for the ones that are at the end of roads with few houses as they will probably be some of the last to get service.

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20 hours ago, bobbutts said:

I priced out a simple backup system using lead acid batteries some years ago and it ends up costing a fortune before you account for maintenance even.  In context those powerwalls are a great deal.  If you have the panels already it would be very tempting.  My dream system for my location is a whole home backup system running on Natural Gas.  I don't think it will ever happen as packup power is one of those things that always gets deferred for me and my current setup is OK.

I used the small 800w quiet inverter generator I got for the first time last night and was really happy with that.  The UPS system I use for my PC + Monitor actually works with it, so during an outage I can fire that up and plug the ups into it so at least my one computer station can run continuously.  We have a 5000W gas generator too, but it hasn't seen much use yet.  For a longer outage I should conceivably be able to use it for fridge/water/furnace.

you should be fine with a 5k+ generator. i use a 5500w portable, which powers the furnace, well, fridge etc. it runs pretty much the whole house with no problems. I could even use the microwave, but try not to. No clothes dryer, dishwasher or oven, but those are not critical. 

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Based on what I am hearing, the crews were not ready for this. You have main drags with one tree down closing the road for over 24 hrs. That's ridiculous unless you are not prepared. If this had a name..it would have been mass hysteria. As bad as it would be hyped by the media..it probably would have led to better storm preps. I don't think this was really driven home until later Saturday and Sunday morning. By that time, it was too late to get a ton of crews on standby. This is only my opinion, but I think there is some truth there. If anything, it drives home how much it means to communicate the situation. It's amazing the lack of attn something gets because it does not have a name or get hyped up. You have POS stratus swirls that get named, and as a result..numerous conf calls to EMA, customers etc.  I do wonder if the wx providers for these utilities did not prepare them enough.

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8 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Based on what I am hearing, the crews were not ready for this. You have main drags with one tree down closing the road for over 24 hrs. That's ridiculous unless you are not prepared. If this had a name..it would have been mass hysteria. As bad as it would be hyped by the media..it probably would have led to better storm preps. I don't think this was really driven home until later Saturday and Sunday morning. By that time, it was too late to get a ton of crews on standby. This is only my opinion, but I think there is some truth there. If anything, it drives home how much it means to communicate the situation. It's amazing the lack of attn something gets because it does not have a name or get hyped up. You have POS stratus swirls that get named, and as a result..numerous conf calls to EMA, customers etc.  I do wonder if the wx providers for these utilities did not prepare them enough.

name it Kevin, the Great NNE Windstorm. 

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1 hour ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Meteorologically it may have been but from a human perspective it won't be.

Exactly.

And as will said...for about 80% of the region it wasn't a big deal.

I said forgettable for most people, and I stand by that, but I regret using such an inherently subjective term. 

 

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2 hours ago, SouthCoastMA said:

For mby there was a memorable 2-3 hour period which the winds were better than Sandy..but other than that..CoastalWx is right that it wasn't anything that a very strong winter storm can't match (along the coast). 

If Philippe had matured to a hurricane before transitioning and slung up further west..it could be have been a lot worse

I think you hit the nail on the head. If Philippe had gotten its act together quicker and if the jet stream was slightly further west that hurricane would have plowed into New England with unbelievable forward speed. It would have been similar to a 1938 setup especially on the east side of the storm.

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6 minutes ago, moneypitmike said:

name it Kevin, the Great NNE Windstorm. 

Although the storm was technically not Philippe per se I had suggested on this thread on Sunday that perhaps a tropical storm watch or warning should have been issued. I thought for the average layperson and perhaps for power crews a tropical storm warning would have a raised awareness more than a high wind watch or warning.

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Bottom line is in any of the 6 New England states.. if there’s a major, widespread , damaging storm where hundreds of thousands of people are affected in each state,, restoration time is going to take days to weeks. It’s been like that from day one and it’s not going to change. There’s a reason why people say make preparations for extended outages. It’s happened before, happened now, and will happen again 

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3 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

,It's pretty simple.  If you live in those areas that got hit hard and never really have wind damage (parts of interior CT and then NE MA up to NH and Maine) it's going to be remembered for a long time by the public. In other areas, it likely will not be remembered.  These wind events are a dime a dozen for CC and cstl MA. The difference this time around, is the foliage and wet ground. 

Yes it is as simple as you stated. The Merrimack Valley(I live in Methuen) area got hit hard by the storm. I have driven around several towns in my area and the damage is more widespread than what was caused by Sandy. And far worse than Irene. And to the best of my recollection far worse than Bob. Numerous trees are down throughout the area. Some of the trees have just been snapped in two. In Lawrence I noticed a large billboard that the support beams had been twisted. I've only seen that one other time in this area and that was many years ago by exit 2 Rt 93 North in NH. A large Holiday Inn billboard had been twisted and bent by a microburst. 

The peak times for the winds were between 11:30-3:30. After 3:30 the winds diminished. I noticed LWM went off line shortly before 1AM.  I lost cable,internet, and phone services around 12:30 AM. And friends told me they began to lose power around the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if a microburst hit the area during that time frame. I think there is an interesting case study that can be written about the storm in the Merrimack Valley area.

As of this writing there are still more than 46,000 without power in Essex County.

For those  who are interested there are several storm related pics on the Methuen Police Twitter page.

It is certainly a storm that I will always remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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42 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Based on what I am hearing, the crews were not ready for this. You have main drags with one tree down closing the road for over 24 hrs. That's ridiculous unless you are not prepared. If this had a name..it would have been mass hysteria. As bad as it would be hyped by the media..it probably would have led to better storm preps. I don't think this was really driven home until later Saturday and Sunday morning. By that time, it was too late to get a ton of crews on standby. This is only my opinion, but I think there is some truth there. If anything, it drives home how much it means to communicate the situation. It's amazing the lack of attn something gets because it does not have a name or get hyped up. You have POS stratus swirls that get named, and as a result..numerous conf calls to EMA, customers etc.  I do wonder if the wx providers for these utilities did not prepare them enough.

Not just by crews either.  A lot of the populace in southern Maine was woefully unprepared.  Lots of "I didn't see this coming" talk around the water cooler.  And massive lines at every gas station and open restaurant. 

I'll never understand why people don't keep a few days worth of non-perishables on hand and if they hear of a storm coming, get gas for the genny/chainsaw.  If the storm's a bust, just put the gas in your car.  

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21 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Although the storm was technically not Philippe per se I had suggested on this thread on Sunday that perhaps a tropical storm watch or warning should have been issued. I thought for the average layperson and perhaps for power crews a tropical storm warning would have a raised awareness more than a high wind watch or warning.

I know many people who were caught off guard by the strength of the storm. Neighbors told me they thought the mets on TV were just hyping up the storm. I think I was the only one in my neighborhood who even bothered taking the chairs and table off of the deck. And I put 2 tarps down under the deck. Those of us who follow the weather closely are far outnumbered by those who barely pay any attention to the weather. The majority of people I know would prefer the climate of New England to be more like San Diego.

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3 hours ago, weathafella said:

It may have been that long here as well but power was stable and baseball was riveting.

Lol mine went out top of 10 but we thank God for At Bat. Bill Goodman at OKX.  Think Westerly Charleston Narragansett got this.

 

That was wicked here on Long Island too...OKX radar lit up with gravity waves doing the nasty LOL. Saw 80 kt descending below 1 kft at one point and thought the east end's goose would be cooked

 

 

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20 minutes ago, tunafish said:

Not just by crews either.  A lot of the populace in southern Maine was woefully unprepared.  Lots of "I didn't see this coming" talk around the water cooler.  And massive lines at every gas station and open restaurant. 

I'll never understand why people don't keep a few days worth of non-perishables on hand and if they hear of a storm coming, get gas for the genny/chainsaw.  If the storm's a bust, just put the gas in your car.  

Chris can talk to this more but I believe a lot of the wind gust forecast grids from the NWS were too low by about 50% even 36 hours prior to the storm. 

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14 minutes ago, tunafish said:

Not just by crews either.  A lot of the populace in southern Maine was woefully unprepared.  Lots of "I didn't see this coming" talk around the water cooler.  And massive lines at every gas station and open restaurant.  

I'll never understand why people don't keep a few days worth of non-perishables on hand and if they hear of a storm coming, get gas for the genny/chainsaw.  If the storm's a bust, just put the gas in your car.  

My favorite storm prep is watching people at the grocery store load up their carts with $250 of meat and frozen food right before a storm that has a good shot of causing power outages.

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1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

Based on what I am hearing, the crews were not ready for this. You have main drags with one tree down closing the road for over 24 hrs. That's ridiculous unless you are not prepared. If this had a name..it would have been mass hysteria. As bad as it would be hyped by the media..it probably would have led to better storm preps. I don't think this was really driven home until later Saturday and Sunday morning. By that time, it was too late to get a ton of crews on standby. This is only my opinion, but I think there is some truth there. If anything, it drives home how much it means to communicate the situation. It's amazing the lack of attn something gets because it does not have a name or get hyped up. You have POS stratus swirls that get named, and as a result..numerous conf calls to EMA, customers etc.  I do wonder if the wx providers for these utilities did not prepare them enough.

I believe most utilities in the country employ far fewer linesmen than they did 20 years ago. It makes more business sense to have fewer in the area and just rely on mutual aid. A storm like Hazel or the November 1950 nor'easter would be an absolute disaster. 

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3 minutes ago, CT Rain said:

Chris can talk to this more but I believe a lot of the wind gust forecast grids from the NWS were too low by about 50% even 36 hours prior to the storm. 

Every NWS outlet always downplays and is ultra conservative. They all base it on can always increase if need to mentality. That is ass backwards in situations like this.

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2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Bingo.  

Also direction matters.  

Lots of snapped trees but the canopy itself has evolved to take higher winds from the northwest.  You can see it with less density of branches on the NW side and more robust growth on the SE side.  A much smaller version of the flag trees in the mountains that have no branches on the N/W side but growth on the SE.

Trees just aren't used to taking a beating from that side.  Even SVR thunderstorms have winds coming in from the west/northwest.  

Looking at a lot of the obs, it seems the stations up here were more ESE which is even rarer for big winds.  

Cept we get strong SE winds all the time with cutters and Ya know the Irenes  Sandys of history

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33 minutes ago, Great Snow 1717 said:

Yes it is as simple as you stated. The Merrimack Valley(I live in Methuen) area got hit hard by the storm. I have driven around several towns in my area and the damage is more widespread than what was caused by Sandy. And far worse than Irene. And to the best of my recollection far worse than Bob. Numerous trees are down throughout the area. Some of the trees have just been snapped in two. In Lawrence I noticed a large billboard that the support beams had been twisted. I've only seen that one other time in this area and that was many years ago by exit 2 Rt 93 North in NH. A large Holiday Inn billboard had been twisted and bent by a microburst. 

The peak times for the winds were between 11:30-3:30. After 3:30 the winds diminished. I noticed LWM went off line shortly before 1AM.  I lost cable,internet, and phone services around 12:30 AM. And friends told me they began to lose power around the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if a microburst hit the area during that time frame. I think there is an interesting case study that can be written about the storm in the Merrimack Valley area.

As of this writing there are still more than 46,000 without power in Essex County.

For those  who are interested there are several storm related pics on the Methuen Police Twitter page.

It is certainly a storm that I will always remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep.  We lost power between 12:30 and 1 AM.  The winds were rattling the house during that time.

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1 minute ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Every NWS outlet always downplays and is ultra conservative. They all base it on can always increase if need to mentality. That is ass backwards in situations like this.

I'm not sure if that's true. Their statements didn't match their grids. It was odd.

In snowstorms it's the opposite though... the snow grids are almost always GGW. 

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1 hour ago, SJonesWX said:

you should be fine with a 5k+ generator. i use a 5500w portable, which powers the furnace, well, fridge etc. it runs pretty much the whole house with no problems. I could even use the microwave, but try not to. No clothes dryer, dishwasher or oven, but those are not critical. 

yep thats what I have , power guys on my road right now untangling the mess

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