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March 1-2 wind event


Ji

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Power still out in our neighborhood and much of NVA.  Our's went out at 13:00 yesterday.  The status on many of the outages including our just says "dispatched" and "pending investigation", so the crew hasn't even surveyed the issue yet.  The issue is a BIG popular laying across the above ground high voltage lines along Lawyers road.  At the peak yesterday evening DOM had around 400,000 customers w/o service.  That's down to 230,000 now, so they've put a sizeable dent in restoring service, but have a long way to go. 

Lawyers Road is notorious for electrical outages.  We've lost power about 25 times in the 8 years we've lived in our current house.  After the last prolonged outage DOM did a major tree pruning along Lawyers Road.  That only addressed trees in close proximity to the above ground high voltage lines.  Hard to avoid all threats when a 120 foot popular drops on the lines from 60 feet away. 

Have a generator with just enough juice to run the well pump and two air handlers/furnace plus a few outlets.  Have to shut off the furnaces though to warm up the electric hot water heater.  Eventually going to get a whole house, auto-start, auto-switching backup generator that's nat gas powered.  For the time being at least we're warm.  Lots of folks in Giant last night buying flashlights and batteries.   

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Yeah, I know Lawyers Rd well.  The whole way up from Vienna into Reston is widow maker alley wrt trees. We love the shade they give but in these storms it comes back to bite people in the butt.

Hope power is returned to all soon. It’s gonna be tough for the power cos to get everyone up and running. This was a hell of a storm and electricity is a different creature which does take time to fix

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1 minute ago, H2O said:

Yeah, I know Lawyers Rd well.  The whole way up from Vienna into Reston is widow maker alley wrt trees. We love the shade they give but in these storms it comes back to bite people in the butt.

Hope power is returned to all soon. It’s gonna be tough for the power cos to get everyone up and running. This was a hell of a storm and electricity is a different creature which does take time to fix

Thanks H2O.  We live about half way between Vienna and Hunter Mill directly on Lawyers.  Great location, but there's trade-offs.  Never  figured out why VDOT doesn't do something to improve the grade and setback of Lawyers between Vienna and Hunter Mill (Lawyers is actually a state route, not under FFCO to maintain).  Multiple times a year Lawyers is closed due to flooding and/or downed trees.  West of Hunter Mill Lawyers was completely redone some years ago.  From Hunter Mill to Herndon it's wider, better graded with good runoff and wider shoulders to protect above ground utilities.  Guess I'm being greedy. 

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Well, I am back from the dark, but only because power has returned to work, still out at the house when I left at 6 am. That is 32 hours minus power. Luckily I do have a generator, nothing big but keeps the fridge and or freezer (but not at same time) going. About half the subdivision returned to normalcy about 11 last night, I am the second house from that.....figures. Anyway, had a 51 mph gust at the house just prior to darkness setting in at 11:30 that night for highest recorded in this event.  Lots of smaller 1, 2 and 3 inch diameter stuff down in yard, saw several larger trees down when out yesterday in county.

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Got power back around 2:30am.  Bummed that I lost all of the wind data from my PWS after 10am.  Only was able to tie my top gust on record.

Have to say, having one of those travel battery packs that charges your phone/USB devices is excellent for power outages.  Highly recommend keeping one around the house.

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This has been one of the most impressive synoptic scale (non-tropical) wind events I've ever experienced. We have some minor damage to our yard but nothing major like others have. Other than flickers...we never lost power - true testament to PEPCO improvements in our neighborhood. 

The duration and strength of this event was pretty rare for our area. Wouldn't be surprised at all if this event is written about for a while...this is the type of thing you'd expect to be in the Washington Weather book if there was a new publication of it. It was like derecho style winds (a little lower perhaps) but for hours on end. Dulles reported 50mph gusts for 12+ hourly obs in a row!!!

The PEPCO outage numbers have dropped considerably overnight...however, I'd expect the reduction to start slowing as they move off of larger scale outages and into smaller 1-15 house outages. 

The fact that @Eskimo Joe is impressed by this event should be a true indication of the magnitude of it. It seems we can't get snow this year. If we don't end this winter with a mod-sig snow event...this will probably be my memorable event of the season. Just imagine if there had been a leaf-out of the trees already. 

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1 minute ago, Kmlwx said:

This has been one of the most impressive synoptic scale (non-tropical) wind events I've ever experienced. We have some minor damage to our yard but nothing major like others have. Other than flickers...we never lost power - true testament to PEPCO improvements in our neighborhood. 

The duration and strength of this event was pretty rare for our area. Wouldn't be surprised at all if this event is written about for a while...this is the type of thing you'd expect to be in the Washington Weather book if there was a new publication of it. It was like derecho style winds (a little lower perhaps) but for hours on end. Dulles reported 50mph gusts for 12+ hourly obs in a row!!!

The PEPCO outage numbers have dropped considerably overnight...however, I'd expect the reduction to start slowing as they move off of larger scale outages and into smaller 1-15 house outages. 

The fact that @Eskimo Joe is impressed by this event should be a true indication of the magnitude of it. It seems we can't get snow this year. If we don't end this winter with a mod-sig snow event...this will probably be my memorable event of the season. Just imagine if there had been a leaf-out of the trees already. 

We gained 5,000 in the past hour.  Not all meters are reporting to public sites but our rep says calls have increased...guess folks are waking up and finding power still out.

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3 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

We gained 5,000 in the past hour.  Not all meters are reporting to public sites but our rep says calls have increased...guess folks are waking up and finding power still out.

Would guess the general trend will be down with some ebbs and flows. Maybe like the reverse of yesterday where it was like 3 steps of increasing outages and 1 step of reduction. 

I wouldn't doubt that the gusty winds could still bring down some weakened trees and branches causing additional outages. 

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6 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

Would guess the general trend will be down with some ebbs and flows. Maybe like the reverse of yesterday where it was like 3 steps of increasing outages and 1 step of reduction. 

I wouldn't doubt that the gusty winds could still bring down some weakened trees and branches causing additional outages. 

I think folks are waking up and walking their dog or frustrated that power isn't back on yet.  We were adding 7,000 to 10,000 outages an hour yesterday so this is nothing like that.  Overall trend is towards full restoration in Montgomery and Maryland which is good.

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6 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

Would guess the general trend will be down with some ebbs and flows. Maybe like the reverse of yesterday where it was like 3 steps of increasing outages and 1 step of reduction. 

I wouldn't doubt that the gusty winds could still bring down some weakened trees and branches causing additional outages. 

:rolleyes: Sounds like how we step-down from storm potentials a week out.

Also, nice pic!  I can't believe how long we've been around on this and the old eastern board.  I remember you being in high school!

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11 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

:rolleyes: Sounds like how we step-down from storm potentials a week out.

Also, nice pic!  I can't believe how long we've been around on this and the old eastern board.  I remember you being in high school!

Thanks! I tend to *mostly* stay away from impersonal avatars haha. 

You're making me feel extremely old. I remember getting weenie tagged in 2006 and having Trixie rip me a new one. 

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8 minutes ago, supernovasky said:

I absolutely cannot believe I made it all day with power yesterday in MoCo. There were outages all around me, even on our street!

 

For reference we lost power during one of those two ice events.

Congratulations.  Consider yourself fortunate.  Lots of folks would trade places with you. 

Sometimes it's hard to tell where the outages are/aren't because so many people have generators now.  Growing up in Ohio almost nobody had generators except for dairy farmers with large herds and electric pumping equipment.  They HAD to keep milking 2x a day no matter what.  Tough life even with modern technology. 

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Didn't see this anywhere in the thread, but for revisiting this event in the future:

***********************PEAK WIND GUST***********************

LOCATION             MAX WIND     TIME/DATE   COMMENTS
                        GUST            OF
                         MPH    MEASUREMENT

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

...District of Columbia...
   Catholic University     66   935 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   American University     66  1049 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Us Capitol 1 S          66   359 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Washington              66   220 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Silver Spring 1 SSE     64   930 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Adams Morgan 1 E        61  1215 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Georgetown 1 NNE        58  1219 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   The Mall 1 S            58  1054 AM  3/02  NOS-NWLON

MARYLAND

...Allegany County...
   Frostburg               60  1229 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Anne Arundel County...
   Us Naval Academy        64   252 PM  3/02  ASOS
   Glen Burnie 1 W         62   259 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Baltimore/washington    61   321 PM  3/02  ASOS
   Harmans 1 W             59  1200 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...ANZ530...
   Havre De Grace 6 ESE    62   109 PM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ531...
   Middle River 4 S        63   207 PM  3/02  Buoy
   Bowleys Quarters 10     61   606 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...ANZ532...
   Bay Ridge 1 E           62   821 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...ANZ533...
   Calvert Cliffs 3 E      64   718 AM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ534...
   Fishing Creek 6 SSE     61   933 AM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ536...
   Swan Point              61  1226 PM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ537...
   Cobb Island 2 SE        69   654 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Saint George Island     66   618 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Piney Point 2 WSW       66   700 AM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ541...
   Plum Point 10 ENE       61  1031 AM  3/02  Buoy

...ANZ542...
   Drum Point 2 WSW        61   600 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...ANZ543...
   Dameron 19 ENE          63   730 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Fishing Creek 13 SE     62   642 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Fishing Creek 6 SSE     61   659 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Dameron 32 E            61   839 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Baltimore County...
   Mcdonogh                61   442 PM  3/02  CWOP
   Edgemere 2 ENE          61  1012 AM  3/02  WXFLOW
   Martin State Airport    59   254 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Carney 1 S              58   620 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Randallstown 1 NNW      58   804 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Baltimore City...
   Highlandtown 1 W        66   320 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Baltimore 1 W           59   310 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Pumphrey 3 N            58   545 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Charles County...
   White Plains 2 NNE      61   840 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   La Plata 1 WSW          61   838 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Tompkinsville 2 WSW     61   901 AM  3/02  WXFLOW

...Frederick County...
   Ballenger Creek 2 NN    71  1125 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Ballenger Creek 1 W     69   509 AM  3/02  CWOP
   Sabillasville 4 SSW     68   315 PM  3/02  AWOS
   New Market 2 WNW        62  1235 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Brunswick 1 E           61   939 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Ballenger Creek         60   529 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Green Valley 2 SW       59   835 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Harford County...
   Hickory 3 N             64   203 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Howard County...
   Columbia 2 WNW          61   345 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Montgomery County...
   Gaithersburg            69   500 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Four Corners            64  1135 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Glenmont 1 SE           64   135 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Germantown 2 NE         63   839 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Germantown 2 N          62   949 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Langley Park 1 W        61   235 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Clarksburg 1 SE         60   539 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Congressional Manor     58   239 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Montgomery Village      58   949 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Potomac 2 NE            58   920 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Prince Georges County...
   Andrews Afb 1 N         67   333 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Upper Marlboro          67  1029 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Northwood 3 NW          64   949 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Glenn Dale 2 W          61   949 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Seat Pleasant 1 NE      61  1255 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Laurel 1 E              61  1234 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Morningside 1 E         60   156 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Marlow Heights 1 NW     58   525 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Upper Marlboro 1 ESE    58   630 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Bowie                   58   524 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Hyattsville             58   540 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Bowie 1 S               58   525 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Kenilworth 1 ENE        58  1200 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Oxon Hill               58   524 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Glenarden 1 SSW         58   203 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...St. Marys County...
   Patuxent River Nas 2    69   852 AM  3/02  AWOS
   Patuxent River          68   249 PM  3/02  ASOS
   Ridge 6 SE              63   635 AM  3/02  WXFLOW
   Chaptico 1 ENE          60   409 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Webster Field           60   358 PM  3/02  ASOS
   Saint Inigoes 2 W       59  1106 AM  3/02  AWOS

...Washington County...
   Hagerstown Regional     61  1231 PM  3/02  ASOS

VIRGINIA

...ANZ536...
   Dahlgren 3 ENE          66   737 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Dahlgren 2 SE           64   730 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Dahlgren 3 ESE          62   655 AM  3/02  Buoy
   Swan Point 5 S          61   818 AM  3/02  Buoy

...Arlington County...
   Ronald Reagan Washin    62   504 PM  3/02  ASOS

...Augusta County...
   Staunton Arpt 1 ENE     58  1209 AM  3/02  CWOP

...City of Manassas...
   Manassas 3 SW           60   521 AM  3/02  AWOS

...Fairfax County...
   Newington 2 ESE         60   542 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Woodbridge 3 E          59   617 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Chantilly               59   342 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Annandale 1 W           58   824 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Frederick County...
   Winchester 2 SE         61   235 AM  3/02  AWOS

...Greene County...
   Swift Run 2 ESE         70  1121 AM  3/02  Public
   Stanardsville           69   344 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Amicus 1 E              64   443 AM  3/02  CWOP
   Shady Grove 3 N         60  1254 PM  3/02  Mesonet
   Lydia 1 SE              59   839 PM  3/02  CWOP
   Lydia 2 SSE             59   839 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Highland County...
   Monterey 2 WSW          60   942 PM  3/01  Trained Spotter

...King George County...
   Dahlgren 3 NE           75   652 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   King George 1 ESE       60   559 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   King George 1 WNW       58   210 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Loudoun County...
   Dulles International    71  1139 AM  3/02  ASOS
   Leesburg 2 SSW          62   535 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Hillsboro 1 SSW         62   850 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Dulles International    62   531 PM  3/02  ASOS
   Leesburg Executive A    62   535 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Arcola 2 NNE            61   929 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Leesburg 1 WNW          59   735 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Ashburn 1 ESE           59  1119 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Arcola 3 SSE            58   347 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Lovettsville 2 ENE      58   103 PM  3/02  CWOP
   Countryside 3 ESE       58  1110 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Arcola 2 SSW            58   345 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Madison County...
   Etlan                   78  1135 AM  3/02  Broadcast Media

...Nelson County...
   Wintergreen 4 WNW       65   114 AM  3/02  Mesonet
   Wintergreen 1 SW        60   255 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Page County...
   Hamburg 1 NE            63   215 PM  3/02  AWOS
   Newport 1 SSW           58   154 PM  3/02  Mesonet

...Prince William County...
   Quantico Marine Corp    63  1019 AM  3/02  AWOS

...Rappahannock County...
   Slate Mills 3 NE        70   408 AM  3/02  Trained Spotter

...Spotsylvania County...
   Fredericksburg 3 SE     63  1155 AM  3/02  AWOS

...Stafford County...
   Stafford                60   315 PM  3/02  AWOS

WEST VIRGINIA

...Berkeley County...
   Martinsburg Arpt 1 N    58   153 AM  3/02  ASOS

...Grant County...
   Petersburg 1 S          59   935 PM  3/01  AWOS

...Hampshire County...
   Winchester 15 W         76   700 AM  3/02  Public

...Jefferson County...
   Bakerton 2 SW           58  1019 AM  3/02  Mesonet

...Pendleton County...
   Brushy Run 2 SW         65   117 AM  3/02  RAWS
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The scene from SW Warrenton. This is along a 3 mile stretch with snapped power poles and downed lines. Had to drive over some dead power lines to get home. Whole section has shut off power, they can't even start working on it because it's too windy.  Personally had to get out the chain saw and quarter a downed pine laying across the road about a mile north of our house to go out and get supplies.  I’ve never seen this kind of damage in Fauquier.

00E1FEB1-DEF6-41EC-A568-5490C57275FD.jpeg

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We only got up to 38 mph yesterday and never lost power, but the damage was apparent driving around.  I like a good windy day, but damaging winds are a bit too much. 

Looks like MD peaked with about 500,000 customers without power last night.

fMckzk7.png

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4 minutes ago, cae said:

We only got up to 38 mph yesterday and never lost power, but the damage was apparent driving around.  I like a good windy day, but damaging winds are a bit too much. 

Looks like MD peaked with about 500,000 customers without power last night.

fMckzk7.png

Interesting - thanks for posting.  In VA, DOM peaked at close to 400,000 customers w/o power.  Combined and factoring in DC, that's close to 1M (assuming DC is not in your MD stat).  Multiply the number of customers by the number of people per customer (whatever that number is) we had a couple million + people w/o power.  Have to guess a lot of folks went to hotels for the night. 

Can only surmise the wide spread chaos IVO 95 and the Susquehanna when 95 was closed yesterday.  The traffic map showed a pretty dire situation.  Hotels were probably jammed.

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2 minutes ago, RDM said:

Interesting - thanks for posting.  In VA, DOM peaked at close to 400,000 customers w/o power.  Combined and factoring in DC, that's close to 1M (assuming DC is not in your MD stat).  Multiply the number of customers by the number of people per customer (whatever that number is) we had a couple million + people w/o power.  Have to guess a lot of folks went to hotels for the night. 

Can only surmise the wide spread chaos IVO 95 and the Susquehanna when 95 was closed yesterday.  The traffic map showed a pretty dire situation.  Hotels were probably jammed.

I think the local movie theaters and restaurants did pretty well last night too, as long as they had power.

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48 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

Thanks! I tend to *mostly* stay away from impersonal avatars haha. 

You're making me feel extremely old. I remember getting weenie tagged in 2006 and having Trixie rip me a new one. 

Lol. I'm not sure but did you just dis my avatar?!?  But, I miss the days when Trixie tried to run this place like an English nanny. God, there were some epic blow ups. And you old?!? That's funny.

On topic, still blustery here this morning. I had to go out on the ladder to put some loose siding back into the grooves on one side of the house. Maybe next winter when business for HighStakes is slow, I'll have him back out here to tear down and re-side that wind tunnel side of my house and reverse the seams so the high winds don't get under it.

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47 minutes ago, cae said:

I think the local movie theaters and restaurants did pretty well last night too, as long as they had power.

The iPic theater across the street from me had power flickering during much of the day, annoying a lot of the moviegoers. Their associated restaurant decided to close so you had a roving group of bartenders and wait staff out on a Friday night drinking at other establishments. 

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