Weather

[John E Davies]

Current count is 33 people rescued from this campground.....

https://www.wbtv.com/2020/11/12/water-rescues-underway-alexander-county-more-than-dozen-campers-trapped/

Always check your escape routes when choosing a campground. In the West, you need to keep wildfires in mind, not so much floods. The last thing you need is a remote spot miles back, with only a single access point. Scout out alternative routes - you may not be able to get your Ollie out the back way but you might get your TV and people out.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Jim_Oker]

3 hours ago, John E Davies said:

The last thing you need is a remote spot miles back, with only a single access point.

For better or worse I often  choose such spots. In  the  WA Cascades, this gives access to some fine areas - e.g. I spent some nights in early May camped (in a socially distant fashion 🙂) up  the  north fork  Teanaway where we did some  excellent spring ski mountaineering/touring. I  would think twice  about such  a move during red flag warning periods though,  and if a burn was happening  nearby I  would  for sure  avoid it. Same deal in UT where such roads and camps offer access to some excellent terrain for hiking and photography and canyoneering. But I avoid doing  so if it  looks like rain may come through  and  soak the  road and fill  the washes with flash  floods (many  of the red dirt roads in particular become impassable when soaked even though they're super  easy  to drive  when dry), and in  any case I  bring at least  a week's worth  of water and food when out  such  roads there in case I  unexpectedly need  to  wait for  the road  to  dry and  washes to  dry out. Plus an always-charged inReach which I can use to let  my wife know  I'm OK  and waiting, and to call  for help if my supplies  are dwindling and I'm  still stuck.  I'd modify the admonition to being aware of the risks one is taking on and being thoughtful  about  how to  mitigate them.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Jim_Oker

[Jim_Oker]

Speaking of weather...snowfall totals forecast through  7PM Saturday in WA

[SeaDawg]

mmm. Snow.

Btw, all is good today, post eta, in my county.

Patriot, and thise north, I  hope you did ok, too.

 

[topgun2]

Unfortunately, a campground (Hiddenite Family Campground) about 50 miles north of Charlotte, NC was flooded and three people died.  AT least one other person died on one of over 50 roads that were also flooded due to this (Eta) storm.  This is just a reminder that these "tropical" storms have effects on areas that are not necessarily all that close to the coast.

Bill

[Patriot]

14 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

mmm. Snow.

Btw, all is good today, post eta, in my county.

Patriot, and thise north, I  hope you did ok, too.

 

Thank you Sherry, 

We hunkered down and other than lots of water rolling down the ridge away from our home we are all good. The lake is beyond brimming and lots of debris which was expected. Today sunshine and we are getting out of the house for a few hours. 
- David

Edited November 13, 2020 by Patriot

[Patriot]

1 hour ago, topgun2 said:

Unfortunately, a campground (Hiddenite Family Campground) about 50 miles north of Charlotte, NC was flooded and three people died.  AT least one other person died on one of over 50 roads that were also flooded due to this (Eta) storm.  This is just a reminder that these "tropical" storms have effects on areas that are not necessarily all that close to the coast.

Bill

Bill,

So very horribly tragic...a clear reminder that weather alerts are life savers. These beautiful mountain and low lying foothill  streams and creeks turn into dangerous flood waters in minutes. I was sad to see this news.
 

David

[John E Davies]

3 hours ago, Patriot said:

So very horribly tragic...a clear reminder that weather alerts are life savers. 

I bought a well regarded weather alert radio to take camping, what a waste of money, most places where I have cell coverage, it works fine. Where there is no cell, the radio is just static on all bands. I did buy a 30 foot wire external antenna for it, that could be strung from trees, but that seems to be dubious at best. I wanted to be able to receive tsunami alerts on the WA coast - nope, I had to hope I would hear the distant sirens or the herd of panicked stampeding feet.   😀   I do keep it in my office now, in case of a disaster, but for my kind of camping I would have to use the Garmin inReach weather option, which is perfect for future planning, but it in no way alerts you to potential dangers like flash floods. 

FEMA BE SMART. TAKE PART. KNOW YOUR ALERTS AND WARNINGS

If somebody knows of an effective back country alert system that does not involve a cell phone or satellite phone and subscription, I would love to hear about it.

John Davies

Spokane WA
 

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by John E Davies

[SeaDawg]

4 hours ago, topgun2 said:

.  This is just a reminder that these "tropical" storms have effects on areas that are not necessarily all that close to the coast

I truly didn't realize just how much impact tropical storms had, so far inland, until we started spending so much time in North Carolina. 

We are deeply saddened by the campground tragedy.

[Fritz]

13 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

I wanted to be able to receive tsunami alerts on the WA coast - nope, I had to hope I would hear the distant sirens or the sound of lots of panicked running feet.  

Here is the Ucluelet (British Columbia, on west coast of Vancouver Island) evacuation plan that would lead to the "sound of lots of panicked running feet"...

[John E Davies]

1 hour ago, Fritz said:

 

LOL, I have seen those signs in various towns. Some like Ocean Shores, WA are located so far out on a sandy peninsula that there is no way you would EVER get to high ground in the ten to twenty minutes allotted. So, grabbing a beer, sitting on your roof in a chair and watching the tsunami roll in is a more or less accepted response. BTW, for the uninitiated, many of the coastal names are Native American, they often sound very different from their spelling. This remote town in coastal BC town is pronounced  “yew-kloo-let”.

Whenever I spend time on the coast I am hyper aware of sleeper waves and stuff like this, it kinda spoils my vacation time to always have my head swiveling around. So I do try to at least overnight on high ground....

John Davies

Spokane WA. 

Edited November 13, 2020 by John E Davies

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:49 PM, Jim_Oker said:

Speaking of weather...snowfall totals forecast through  7PM Saturday in WA

The first of the storms passed through SW Oregon Friday . . . . . a bit of wind and a two hour power outage.  Kudos to our rural cooperative power company for restoring power so quickly.  All day we had on and off thunder showers and a bit of thunder/lightning.  Rainfall total for this stage of the storms was 3".  

Saturday afternoon and the wind is picking up again.  Probably in for more rain; hopefully no power outage this round.  Snow on the Cascade passes; chains required on Hwy 138.  Looks like rain for most of next week with snow continuing in the mountains and central Oregon.

[Jim_Oker]

RIght now I90 is bare and wet  over Snoqualmie Pass where it's  a few degrees above freezing. At peak storm chains were  required  except AWD/4WD with long delays on the highway. Looks like the coming week will probably have similar ups and downs up  there.  Looks  like there's beautiful  white snow turned to slush on the landscape up  there.  One weather sensor at one of  the ski hills was reading about 20" snow pack depth as of mid afternoon today  (Saturday).  Highway 2 over Stevens  Pass is rated (by WS  DOT) "Traction Tires Required, Chains required on Vehicles over 10,000 gross vehicle weight. Oversize Vehicles Prohibited." Highway 20 is currently  closed  through the North Cascades, with an update promised for Monday.  It may be  closed for the season now.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Jim_Oker