Two storms

[vaneramos]

During our stay at the cottage, Lake Fletcher was hit by two severe storms on Sept. 24 and 27.

Sunday morning before dawn I was wakened by a steady clatter of tree litter and heavy rain falling on the roof. The wind grew stronger as daylight approached. Alarmed, I got up and went to the dining room window, from which we can see across the lake. Gusts of wind stirred up a procession of small waterspouts. I heard a tree fall in the woods. Around 7:30 I got dressed and took my camera to our neighbour's dock, which provides a better vista of the lake. By then ragged clouds were giving way to a bright sunrise. I managed to photograph one of the waterspouts. The lake was choppy rather than wavy, as if the wind was coming from every direction and the water didn't know where to go. Downward gusts fanned frenzies of ripples across the surface. Within a few minutes of my arrival the wind began to die. By 8:00 the lake was calm.

The storm left thousands of Ontario residents without power for several days. I noticed a tree had fallen atop the hill at the back of our property, but not until several days later did I explore and discover the full extent of the damage. Besides the first cedar, two large hemlocks had fallen across the back of our neighbour's property, tearing off topsoil and exposing a pink granite outcrop on the side of our hill, about four metres long by two metres wide. Several smaller trees were also damaged or destroyed. When we ventured forth a day or two later, we found numerous other trees felled across the road had already been cleared by neighbours.

I would like to know what wind speeds this storm packed, but have been unable to find any information online.

Wednesday morning started sunny and pleasant. After lunch Danny and I drove to the dam at the bottom of the lake for a walk. The second storm came up just as we arrived. We walked a little, but were soon deterred by flying clouds and the advent of rain. As we got in the car and pulled away, I saw green sky in the rear view mirror. It followed us. We arrived home just as a dramatic shelf cloud rolled across the lake. I had filled the Canon's memory card, but used the Kodak DX3500 to take my most dramatic storm photos ever. As far as I can discover, no tornadoes resulted from this storm system. It did not seem to do any additional damage, except perhaps knocking down limbs and trees broken in Sunday's wind.

The first photo shows one of the mini waterspouts on Sunday morning. The next three successive shots were taken from the dock on Wednesday afternoon.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Gorgious shots Van.

Those last three of the dark gray clouds are wonderful. I love that deep steel gray color they produce. Then again, I've always loved a good storm.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

What these photos fail to convey is how green the sky was! It looked like real tornado weather, so I'm surprised there was no record of any.