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July 1-8, 2012 Heat & Storms


Herb@MAWS

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storms are generally increasing to the nw of dc now into s pa. not sure we'll get any svr but some rumbles out there. little cell fired up on outflow over the city.

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Wow.

Folks telling me Isabel, June 2008, December 2009, Two in Feb. 2010, 2 or 3 severe but more localized in summer 2010, very wet snowstorm late Jan 2011, Irene 2011, that all of these were multi day events for tens and even hundreds of thousand. I dont understand they why what happened Friday is called unprecedented. I know the north to south coverage and length of the line was exception but no electric is no electric and it happens a lot.

You'll find the vast majority of these outages are in the Beltway area or older communities. Overhead utilities + large trees = problems. Add in a high population and numbers inflate quickly. I live in a newer complex with underground utilities and have never lost power from weather. Probably the same in other newer communities.

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the problem is we're poor and can't rebuild our infrastructure. as much as pepco et al are easy targets there's not a whole lot they can do without some mass gov infusion of funds to fix issues. our aversion to clearing trees is of course also a problem but with the system degraded and overtaxed as it is, that probably only solves so much as you're still going to get events that break poles etc.

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the problem is we're poor and can't rebuild our infrastructure. as much as pepco et al are easy targets there's not a whole lot they can do without some mass gov infusion of funds to fix issues. our aversion to clearing trees is of course also a problem but with the system degraded and overtaxed as it is, that probably only solves so much as you're still going to get events that break poles etc.

My understanding is that most of these poles can withstand winds up to 100 mph. Had a 60 mph storm Sunday, a tree knocked over, but power was never off. After Irene last year, I took the train the day after, even with gusts near 100 mph, the power poles were fine, it is the trees knocking the lines off that is the problem.

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These storms are growing and "coughing" on dry air and and dying then putting out their outflow. I just got "hit" by the Baltimore outflow and my DP tanked by 7 degrees. Nice T&L here, they've got a nice "crack" to them..

Edit: BWI TDWR offline?

This second cell i've received has insane torrential downpours, winds over 40 and lots of lightning!

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Wow.

Folks telling me Isabel, June 2008, December 2009, Two in Feb. 2010, 2 or 3 severe but more localized in summer 2010, very wet snowstorm late Jan 2011, Irene 2011, that all of these were multi day events for tens and even hundreds of thousand. I dont understand they why what happened Friday is called unprecedented. I know the north to south coverage and length of the line was exception but no electric is no electric and it happens a lot.

You'll find the vast majority of these outages are in the Beltway area or older communities. Overhead utilities + large trees = problems. Add in a high population and numbers inflate quickly. I live in a newer complex with underground utilities and have never lost power from weather. Probably the same in other newer communities.

Yep I do believe the underground lines do help out a lot. Along with the huge amount of large and aging trees in the older communities. After living in OH and coming here I was surprised to see so many communities in Frederick Co. with burried lines.

I live in a very new community just down the road from TradeWinds. Everything down in this part of Frederick is burried with some exceptions. Now that being said just 2 miles up the road he kept his power but for some reason two neighborhoods, one being mine, and the other across the Pike from me lost power for close to 12 hours. We both have underground lines but it may have been a feeder line that comes in that got knocked out or a transformer along the line to feed the neighborhoods. This is the first and only time since living in MD, have lived here for 12 years, that I have ever lost power due to a storm and it took that long to come back. We have had our occasional a/c usage short lived outages but that is usually it. My dad is a retired Electrician and when the lights started to flicker 10 min before the lights went out I knew we were going to loose it. He told me a transformer tries to reset itself 3 times. When it goes after the 3rd time you are out.

As for the storms last night. I went to bed early due to not sleeping well with no a/c Friday night. I heard nothing and woke to see the deck wet. I am glad it was not much other than rain. Did check archived radar to see what actually did come through though. My husband just said it was a great light show off in the distance though.

After dealing with Debby in FL last weekend and her nasty squalls blowing in 60+ winds for two days on a barrier island, and Friday's storm... I am stormed out for awhile.

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Last night's storms (11:30 - 1:00) produced as good a lightning show as I can recall seeing. Just incredible. The power went out as many times - or more - than during Friday night's storm. Equally as incredible is how storms that produced such intense lightning could produce so little rain. Pathetic .07" during a more than 1-hour long series of storms. Winchester reported a healthier .31". Looks like the Stephens City split got me again (Friday too).

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Nice storm right now in Fredericksburg...lots of lightning as well.

Omg you're alive!

For those experiencing brownouts...we were informed by the utility commission that large swaths of the grid are coming back online and as everyone's appliances kick on it taxes the system. So brownouts will be hit or miss over the next two days.

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looks like it may be another 1000 report day when tallied. SW VA has been hit all days.

It doesnt matter what the set up is, anywhere from Marion, Va to wytheville and up and down I 77 in VA and 81 in that section of VA and into Norton, Big Stone Gap, Wise, VA areas always get hit. It is amazing how many text mssgs I get for watches and warnings for down there.

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For those experiencing brownouts...we were informed by the utility commission that large swaths of the grid are coming back online and as everyone's appliances kick on it taxes the system. So brownouts will be hit or miss over the next two days.

Thank you for the heads-up :)

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Omg you're alive!

For those experiencing brownouts...we were informed by the utility commission that large swaths of the grid are coming back online and as everyone's appliances kick on it taxes the system. So brownouts will be hit or miss over the next two days.

Very true. We shut off our air when there is a power outage. Leave one light on to let you know when it comes back on then turn the air on when the light comes on.

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It doesnt matter what the set up is, anywhere from Marion, Va to wytheville and up and down I 77 in VA and 81 in that section of VA and into Norton, Big Stone Gap, Wise, VA areas always get hit. It is amazing how many text mssgs I get for watches and warnings for down there.

Figures that after moving here from Wise that they'd get all the good weather.

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