A Mighty Wind

We had a huge windstorm here the night before my last post came out. Wind isa very powerful force of nature. Even when it's not strong enough to create a tornado or a hurricane, wind can still be strong enough to do serious damage to many different things.

There are two things that happened as a result of this windstorm that we had. The first thing that happened to me was that I lost my electricity in my house. I'm getting frustrated because it seems like every time the wind blows hard my neighborhood loses its electrical power. I can look down the street at those times and there are lights there. I lose power like this at least twice a year. Why is there such a problem where I live?

Then to make matters worse, at the time my power went out I still had the web page with my new post open. I had already published it, so I thought it was ready to go out right on time. When my power finally came back on at mid-afternoon I found out there was a serious problem with yesterday's post.

It was not published on the site. Something put the post in draft mode, so it was not published at all. I quickly fixed it, but by then it was too late. So if you haven't seen it yet, that one is just below this one you're reading now. Take a look at it. It's a small look at the things that can sometimes go wrong with nature photography.

Now on to matters that involve powerful wind storms in a slightly different way. Any of you who routinely read my blog know that I like to be in the forest. It's my favorite place to hike, and I can even sit right down in the forest to read or just relax. It's my home away from home.

The only problem is that if the wind is blowing very hard, the forest can be a very dangerous place. Wind can blow large branches right off of a tree. It can even break large tres right in half. I've seen whole huge trees that were completely uprooted.

It actually can depend somewhat on what season it is at the time. These kinds of things don't happen as much in the summer as they do in colder seasons. The trees seem to be stronger and more full of moisture and life at that time. There are also not as many strong windstorms then.

In the other three seasons it's not the case at all. The trees seem weaker and more brittle. Maybe it's partly because of their lack of leaves. Cold weather probably also helps make the tree more brittle. There could be several reasons. All of this is only from my own personal observation, so it's only speculation.

I was actually caught in a winter storm out in the woods last year, and the trees were falling down all around me. I had to climb through the branches of a fallen tree to get out because the path was impassible otherwise. It was a thrilling, but scary, experience for me.

They had to close that nature park for a few days the next spring because of another huge windstorm. I lost my power then too. I went through that park when it was reopened and the damage was massive. There were fallen trees everywhere I looked. The forest looked a lot thinner than it had before. It must have been a tragedy for any animals that live there.

I guess what I'm trying to say in all of this is that you shouldn't go into the forest if the wind is blowing so hard. It doesn't have to be tornado or hurricane weather to be dangerous. You don't want to learn this the hard way. I almost did.