Trees snapping all around.

[Joe Fields]

Was just out on the back deck for a smoke, and heard the cracking and snapping of large branches all over the neighborhood. Before I was done with my smoke a large branch snapped and wiped out our back privacy fence. It isn't private anymore.

[opiate69]

1. Damn! Where are you?

[Joe Fields]

2. Independence, MO.

[opiate69]

4. My company's corporate office is in Tulsa..

They lost power today around 3:00.. Pretty damned bad storm system. I hope the privacy fence is worst of the damage for you.

[Joe Fields]

8. Tulsa and Oklahoma City have the worst of it, I think.

But we're getting piled on now.

[opiate69]

10. Yeah.. I'm wondering if I'm going to have anything to do tomorrow..

Our servers are all in Tulsa.. if they have no power, there's no way to get orders up to me to fill.. could be a really, really long day..

[kentauros]

3. Uh, I wouldn't be outside for any reason

with all that going on! You might want to stay away from the windows, too.

[Joe Fields]

7. Yeah. We have a lot of large oak and maple trees in the neighborhood.

And there are two large maples (around 50 ft) in the fron, and one in the back. If it goes, there goes our backyard deck and some of the house.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Ice?

I've heard about it but never witnessed it. Wind yes, but not ice. Stay safe.

[Joe Fields]

6. Yeah, a lot of ice. Good thing we have underground utilities.

[Joe Fields]

20. Thanks. Where do you catch high wind?

[BrotherBuzz]

27. California Central Valley - The north wind causes wicked damage on occasion

[Broken_Hero]

9. Stay safe,

I'm in SW Missouri, and we got hit last night, and this morning...we lost power for 3hrs or so...but most of it looks a LOT worse on the Oklahoma side, and on the MO side, it looks like anyone north, or northeast of Joplin/Nevada area got hit badly...

SE Kansas got hit bad also.

[Joe Fields]

11. Have you caught a break in any of it? We're told it's supposed to

continue non stop until tomorrow night.

[Broken_Hero]

13. We got a break now

actually...its been going on for about three hours or so, and believe it or not, our temps have risen a few degree's...weird.

It was 33 outside around 9pm, and I just checked my thermometer again, and its now....37...weird.

Its not as bad as earlier this year, I believe it was mid January when we got it really bad...we were without power for damn near 10 days, and the ice coverage was about 5 times as bad(compared to what we got last night/early today).

[Joe Fields]

16. Wow, ten days? Did you have a back up generator?

That would have been amazing to cope with.

[Broken_Hero]

18. Nope, no back up generator....

I have roughly....60 gallons of water stockpiled for flushing/bathing, I have about 20 gallons of drinking water. We also have a woodstove, and we used that to cook our food, and to keep warm. I also had the usual survival goods, flashlights, batteries, candles, etc etc....

My wife and I also, had her parents over the whole time as well, because everything in there house was electric. About the only thing that wore on me, was my father in law, he likes to worry about things, and he would air his concerns quite...frequently.

We did rather well, but a lot of people didn't fare that well...a lot of tree's falling into people's houses, and a lot of roof damage...

[Joe Fields]

21. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what the damage to my

neighborhood is in the morning.

[kentauros]

15. Here's the National Weather Service

Upper Mississippi Valley Sector in "loop" mode. If you scroll to the bottom of the page you can see the other sectors and where the rest will be coming from. You can also click on this looped image for the radar of your area :)

[Joe Fields]

17. Thanks. Linking to it now.

[Joe Fields]

19. It looks from that satellite image that we'll catch a break soon.

But another storm is backing it up. Hard to say how long in between.

[kentauros]

22. I guess you could look at the timing between radar images

(there should be a time-stamp text portion somewhere on that page) and then go from there. Alternately, look at these satellite links. Although it says "tropical" it still covers the continent, too:

Tropical Satellite Imagery

I tend to look at the water vapor images or loops as that tells me more than just the regular visible or infrared images do.

In the meantime, I'm off to look at Subtropical Storm Olga that I did not know existed until just now

[Joe Fields]

23. Thanks again.

[kentauros]

25. You're welcome :)

And as everyone else has said, stay safe.

Pay attention to the radar and satellite imagery in case you need to do anything outside between storms. Otherwise, stay indoors :)

[MonkeyFunk]

12. ah, ice storms

they're beautiful, but so dangerous.

I was in one a few years ago in upstate NY. I remember standing outside at night, smoking a cig, and hearing what sounded like rifle fire every few seconds - just branches breaking.

[Broken_Hero]

14. its a very eerie sound, thats for sure

and it sounds like gunfire to me as well.

edit:to turn I, into it.

[hedgehog]

28. Buffalo or Oswego?

We went down last fall to help out family after Buffalo took a massive hit froma wet snow storm in mid October. All the leaves were stiill on the trees and it was a massacre. Up here in Oswego County we had a bad spring ice storm a couple years back.

The bad part about ice storms is that they take down EVERYTHING! It can take weeks for everyone to get powwer back!

[xmas74]

24. At least they've called off schools there.

I need to just go to bed and wake up at 4 am. Hopefully Joel Nichols will have a better report for the morning and my school district will finally cancel.

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. Stay safe... best wishes to you and yours...

[hedgehog]

29. I remember one ice storm 30 some years ago, but we seem to

be getting them every couple of years now. Is the frequency of ice storms increasing where you are?

[Joe Fields]

31. We seem to be getting more and more.

When I was growing up, it was just snow. I can remember only one ice storm as a kid. Now, it seems like it's 50-50.

[kwassa]

30. See? That just proves how dangerous smoking is.

Go out in that back deck and ...... WHAMMO!!!!