Microburst, Meteor, UFO, Sasquatch
February 17, 2018 2:30 PM Subscribe
At 1:30 a.m. on January 27 hundreds of old growth trees fell in a small area on the north shore of Lake Quinalt in Olympic National Park. Park officials suggested a microburst could be responsible for the strong winds required to knock the large trees down, but the weather conditions made a microburst unlikely. Meteorologist Cliff Mass (previously) takes a look at the weather data to try to solve the mystery (Part II, final solution).
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble
Bah smug scientists, it was a gaggle of Sasquatch having a really fun party.
posted by sammyo at 2:47 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 2:47 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Brood of Sasquatch? Pack? Herd?
posted by sammyo at 2:48 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 2:48 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
A potlatch of sasquatch.
posted by The otter lady at 2:59 PM on February 17, 2018 [34 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 2:59 PM on February 17, 2018 [34 favorites]
Herd?
Of course I've heard of sasquatch!
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:05 PM on February 17, 2018 [12 favorites]
Of course I've heard of sasquatch!
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:05 PM on February 17, 2018 [12 favorites]
I was waiting for exactly that person to make exactly that joke. MetaFilter does not disappoint.
posted by hippybear at 3:08 PM on February 17, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:08 PM on February 17, 2018 [10 favorites]
Thunderbirds.
posted by elsietheeel at 3:30 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by elsietheeel at 3:30 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Cliff Mass is a regional treasure
posted by potrzebie at 3:41 PM on February 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 3:41 PM on February 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
So, I live in the inland pacific northwest, and we had a storm system move through here a few years ago (NPR was basically non-stop weather alert alarms) and I was on an evening delivery route that had me driving over to Libby Montana as the end point of my run. As I got back in my van I saw the storm moving toward me as a giant black wall, but I figure, I'll drive, and even if I'm only going 5mph at least I'm getting closer to the end of my shift, plus I can always pull over if needed.
I didn't have to pull over. The storm passed quickly but it was pretty stark and violent.
At one point halfway between Libby and Bonners Ferry I came across a line of stopped vehicles. I got out and walked up the line to find a gigantic lodgepole pine had fallen across the highway. We all just stood there scratching our heads until someone came up from behind me and yelled to the vehicles stopped on the other side of the downed tree to go back about a half mile to WhatsHisName's shop and tell him to bring the big chainsaw. He showed up about 20 minutes later and human muscle got the log parts off the road and I could continue back to the shop.
Maybe 60 miles later and right at dusk I was driving through the community of Riverside, WA and it's basically a gigantic trailer park in the midst of lodgepole pines and the storm/microburst/whatever had laid that place to waste.
Trailers shatter in a specific wau. and I've never seen more shattered trailers in the twilight than I saw that night. Like, at first I thought the fading light was playing tricks on me, but as it went along I saw people's lives being entirely disrupted over and over and over again. Ends, middles, other ends, the entire length of the mobile home... It was horrifying.
posted by hippybear at 4:02 PM on February 17, 2018 [16 favorites]
I didn't have to pull over. The storm passed quickly but it was pretty stark and violent.
At one point halfway between Libby and Bonners Ferry I came across a line of stopped vehicles. I got out and walked up the line to find a gigantic lodgepole pine had fallen across the highway. We all just stood there scratching our heads until someone came up from behind me and yelled to the vehicles stopped on the other side of the downed tree to go back about a half mile to WhatsHisName's shop and tell him to bring the big chainsaw. He showed up about 20 minutes later and human muscle got the log parts off the road and I could continue back to the shop.
Maybe 60 miles later and right at dusk I was driving through the community of Riverside, WA and it's basically a gigantic trailer park in the midst of lodgepole pines and the storm/microburst/whatever had laid that place to waste.
Trailers shatter in a specific wau. and I've never seen more shattered trailers in the twilight than I saw that night. Like, at first I thought the fading light was playing tricks on me, but as it went along I saw people's lives being entirely disrupted over and over and over again. Ends, middles, other ends, the entire length of the mobile home... It was horrifying.
posted by hippybear at 4:02 PM on February 17, 2018 [16 favorites]
Neat! Mass does a really great job of explaining things in a way a layperson can understand.
Only one question: if the geological and atmospheric conditions make this possible in that very particular area, how were the trees able to get so large to begin with? Maybe this was a one-in-a-million kind of event, but if so, it would be cool to know why.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 4:35 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Only one question: if the geological and atmospheric conditions make this possible in that very particular area, how were the trees able to get so large to begin with? Maybe this was a one-in-a-million kind of event, but if so, it would be cool to know why.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 4:35 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Mini Tunguska?
The weather sleuthing here actually made me think of the (really good, if a little grim) book Dead Mountain, about the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:51 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
The weather sleuthing here actually made me think of the (really good, if a little grim) book Dead Mountain, about the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:51 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Hey, perhaps the timber industry has crop circles too.
posted by hank at 4:59 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by hank at 4:59 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
> The weather sleuthing here actually made me think of the (really good, if a little grim) book Dead Mountain, about the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident previously on MeFi (almost exactly a decade ago).
posted by languagehat at 5:17 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Dyatlov Pass Incident previously on MeFi (almost exactly a decade ago).
posted by languagehat at 5:17 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Amazing story.
In August 209, there was a microburst in Manhattan that took down dozens of large trees in Central Park. It was terrible riding my bike through the park the next morning seeing so many trees felled.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:19 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
In August 209, there was a microburst in Manhattan that took down dozens of large trees in Central Park. It was terrible riding my bike through the park the next morning seeing so many trees felled.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:19 PM on February 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
The group is called a focus of sasquatch. That's why when you see a photo of a singular sasquatch in the wild, it's "out of focus"
posted by cmfletcher at 6:53 PM on February 17, 2018 [37 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 6:53 PM on February 17, 2018 [37 favorites]
Oh interesting -- my mother lives on a different flank of the Olympics, and she loses tree branches and small trees to the williwaw, which is some kind of strange wind. The branches get ripped off down, or sometimes up, or even sometimes sideways, and a tree can lose a branch from the middle of the trunk and have the rest of them untouched.
posted by clew at 7:25 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 7:25 PM on February 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ok. ok. so the party got a little out of control. Look, it's mushroom season. Narrator: No. No, it's not.
It's actually really windy right now, and the thing about the winds on the Olympic Peninsula and around Juan de Fuca is that they're really gusty. They can go from a pocket of dead calm to a 40 MPH blow and back again in a few seconds. It's intense how turbulent and unstable the wind is.
And even when you get a steady blow you can count on wild gusts and spikes in wind speed. 20-30 MPH steady usually means sudden gusts to 60 and even 70. I've darn near been blown right over by some of theses gusts, leaning one way into the steady gale and then getting blasted sideways by an unexpected gust out of nowhere.
The first time I camped in this kind of wind I was watching giant Douglas Firs getting blown around and tangled up in the crowns like blades of grass or bamboo. It was like watching giant Tolkein Ents fighting, and as they crashed into each other and tangled they'd occasionally knock off branches the size of small trees that would come crashing down.
I slept in my bike helmet under my hammock that night, if you could call that sleeping.
Another thing I learned early on from making friends with the rangers is how they paid attention to the wind direction. It's rare around here, but if it's coming from the "wrong" way opposed to the usual prevailing winds, it means you're going to get a lot more downed trees and deadfall branches.
And I can readily believe that downbursts and gusts could flatten a whole bunch of trees. I've witnessed huge deadfall limbs and whole 150 foot tall firs or cedars just get flattened. Having major chunks of lumber falling is just about the scariest thing you can deal with in a forest short of a crowning wildfire or avalanche. Honestly, bears are way down the list from tree sized branches falling on your head.
And this looks so severe it almost could be a small tornado, but it doesn't have to be. I'm listening to the likely proof right now with how the wind keeps going from eerily still and quiet and then sudden 40-60 MPH gusts.
posted by loquacious at 10:07 PM on February 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's actually really windy right now, and the thing about the winds on the Olympic Peninsula and around Juan de Fuca is that they're really gusty. They can go from a pocket of dead calm to a 40 MPH blow and back again in a few seconds. It's intense how turbulent and unstable the wind is.
And even when you get a steady blow you can count on wild gusts and spikes in wind speed. 20-30 MPH steady usually means sudden gusts to 60 and even 70. I've darn near been blown right over by some of theses gusts, leaning one way into the steady gale and then getting blasted sideways by an unexpected gust out of nowhere.
The first time I camped in this kind of wind I was watching giant Douglas Firs getting blown around and tangled up in the crowns like blades of grass or bamboo. It was like watching giant Tolkein Ents fighting, and as they crashed into each other and tangled they'd occasionally knock off branches the size of small trees that would come crashing down.
I slept in my bike helmet under my hammock that night, if you could call that sleeping.
Another thing I learned early on from making friends with the rangers is how they paid attention to the wind direction. It's rare around here, but if it's coming from the "wrong" way opposed to the usual prevailing winds, it means you're going to get a lot more downed trees and deadfall branches.
And I can readily believe that downbursts and gusts could flatten a whole bunch of trees. I've witnessed huge deadfall limbs and whole 150 foot tall firs or cedars just get flattened. Having major chunks of lumber falling is just about the scariest thing you can deal with in a forest short of a crowning wildfire or avalanche. Honestly, bears are way down the list from tree sized branches falling on your head.
And this looks so severe it almost could be a small tornado, but it doesn't have to be. I'm listening to the likely proof right now with how the wind keeps going from eerily still and quiet and then sudden 40-60 MPH gusts.
posted by loquacious at 10:07 PM on February 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
Guys, the guesses above are cute, but this is settled nomenclature. It’s a yearning of sasquatches, or a ruminance of Bigfeet.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 10:44 PM on February 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 10:44 PM on February 17, 2018 [4 favorites]
Why isn't it Bigfoots?
posted by elsietheeel at 7:01 AM on February 18, 2018
posted by elsietheeel at 7:01 AM on February 18, 2018
“I have two foots” makes no sense, right?
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:48 AM on February 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:48 AM on February 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yeah but *a* Bigfoot has two feet so why would more than one Bigfoot be Bigfeet?
YOU REMIND ME TODAY OF A SMALL MEXICAN CHIHUAHUA.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:58 AM on February 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
YOU REMIND ME TODAY OF A SMALL MEXICAN CHIHUAHUA.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:58 AM on February 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
So as Sherlock would say: "the game is on".
Um, no. He said "the game is afoot" which I believe is from King Henry IV, Part I. 'Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.'
posted by Splunge at 8:15 AM on February 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
Um, no. He said "the game is afoot" which I believe is from King Henry IV, Part I. 'Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.'
posted by Splunge at 8:15 AM on February 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
The game is afeets?
posted by The otter lady at 8:51 AM on February 18, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 8:51 AM on February 18, 2018 [6 favorites]
"Cliff Mass is a regional treasure"
Made even more so by his distinctive voice.
posted by bz at 1:59 PM on February 18, 2018
Made even more so by his distinctive voice.
posted by bz at 1:59 PM on February 18, 2018
You guys, this is getting weird.
*nervously looks around for Quentin Tarantino *
posted by loquacious at 5:04 PM on February 18, 2018
*nervously looks around for Quentin Tarantino *
posted by loquacious at 5:04 PM on February 18, 2018
TIL: The Weather Channel is owned by IBM (blurb at the bottom of the weather.com link)
posted by ArgentCorvid at 6:51 AM on February 19, 2018
posted by ArgentCorvid at 6:51 AM on February 19, 2018
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posted by Countess Elena at 2:43 PM on February 17, 2018 [6 favorites]