The Beauty Around Us

UPDATE:  According to the Warren Times Observer newspaper “Breaking News”, the National Weather Service as of 2:00 p.m. Monday, June 6 has classified yesterday’s storm as an EF1 tornado.

Quite the storm slammed into Warren County, PA late yesterday afternoon.  The storm was dubbed a “wind event” by the Warren County, Pennsylvania Facebook page.   As of 11:00 am today, according to the Warren Times Observer newspaper, the National Weather Service is investigating the damage from yesterday’s storm that brought down trees and closed roads.  It is my understanding that the storm was most severe in two Warren County townships: Conewango Township and Glade Township.  My husband and I live in Conewango Township.

At 4:50 pm yesterday my Facebook status read “I think we are in for some rough weather”.

At 5:02 pm my Facebook status read “Holy wind!”

A minute later I reported “Trees down!”

What is being described as a “wind event” knocked down several trees in the Weatherbee Street and South State Street area, in Conewango Township, as well as along Conewango Creek.  I have read and heard today that places across the Conewango Creek, from where we live, sustained the most damage.  I haven’t seen the storm damage in that area.  It must be pretty bad, though, to be worse than where I live.  Here are some photographs that I took yesterday and today at my house and in a tight circumference near my house.

A tree fell from the property across from our house.
The tree is lying on the street near our front yard.
Part of the top of the tree is hanging over our driveway.

I took this picture from our front porch.

Our next-door neighbor’s tree fell and destroyed their dog fencing.  Shed damage not known.

I took this picture of our neighbor’s fallen tree from our side yard.

I took this picture of another fallen tree, while standing behind our next-door neighbor’s fence.

At least two other trees fell into the street on which I live.

You can see the tree that fell across the road in front of our house behind these trees.

Our neighbors, who live along the Conewango Creek, lost lots of trees on their properties.

Conewango Creek property

Trees took down electric lines near this Conewango Creek property on South State Street.  The tree almost hit the house.  A friend, whose parents live in this house, told me that “there’s a circle of downed trees the whole way around their house!”

Storm damage near where the electric line was pulled down by a fallen tree.

My husband and I were without electric from the time the storm hit until 3:15 am this morning.  Shortly before noon today, I know of one neighbor still without power.  I am sure she is not the only one without power.

I took this picture at approximately 6:50 pm last night.
The fallen tree in front of our house was being cleared from the roadway.

At 7:15 pm the fallen tree was pushed away from the roadway.

More storm damage on property along Conewango Creek

More storm damage on property along Conewango Creek.

More storm damage on property along Conewango Creek

In this photograph I am looking across the Conewango Creek from a North Warren property.

A tree fell down on one of our South State Street neighbor’s car.
The car has a smashed windshield.

This morning I went for a walk along the bike path, located at the end of our street, and crossed over to South State Street.

Wetmore Cemetery sustained storm damage as well.

Wetmore Cemetery is located only a short distance from our house.

There are two women in my neighborhood who could be twins.  I don’t know either woman very well, so I keep mixing them up.  The one woman I know where she lives, but I do not know her name.  The other woman is a Facebook friend.  We have talked a couple times in person.  Yesterday evening a woman was standing at the end of our street.  I thought the woman was my Facebook friend, Sherry.  I asked the woman how things were up her way.  She said fine.  Well, this morning on Facebook, my friend Sherry shared photographs of the storm damage at her house.  Obviously I mixed up the two women!  Sherry wrote that trees and a gazebo that have weathered storms in many years fell quickly Sunday afternoon.  During my morning walk I stopped at Sherry’s house to see how Sherry and her husband were doing.  They are doing fine but have much cleanup to look forward to.  A couple trees landed on their house, breaking windows and messing up new roofing.  Thankfully no one was injured.

Storm damage at my friend Sherry’s house

Storm damage at my friend Sherry’s house

This tree broke off and landed in my friend Sherry’s neighbor’s front yard.

My husband and I were most fortunate.  We did not sustain any damage from this storm.  We had lots of leaves and branches scattered throughout our yard, but that is all.  I spent a few hours today raking and picking up the leaves and branches.

I am most thankful that property damage was the only result of yesterday’s storm.  I am thankful that no one was injured or worse.  A great big thank you goes out to the Fire Department, the police, public works and utility companies who responded to this weather emergency.  Also a huge thank you to all the good Samaritans.  A good Samaritan offered us the use of a generator, if needed.  We decided to ride it out and get in touch with him this morning, if our power had not yet come on.

As of 1:45 pm today I have not seen the National Weather Service report regarding this “wind event”.  I will update this blog post with that report, when received.

This past weekend the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings that stretched from central Kentucky to western Virginia. On Sunday morning The Weather Channel named the storm Winter Storm Olympia. Winter Storm Olympia has affected (or will affect) a large swath of the United States from Wisconsin and Missouri to Virginia, North Carolina and northeastward into New York and parts of New England.

At 5:10 am yesterday morning the National Weather Service in State College PA issued a winter storm warning for snow for where I live, in Warren PA.  The warning became effective at 7:00 pm that evening until 6:00 pm on this evening.  We already had a few inches of snow on the ground. An additional 6-10 inches of snow was anticipated.

For the remainder of this blog post I will share a few photographs that I took at our house around 10:00 am this morning.  I have no idea how much snow is on the ground.  The photographs, though, will give you a general idea of the depth.  There is a lot of snow on the ground, and the snow is still falling!

I took this photograph while standing inside our house, with the back door propped open.

Look how much snow is on top of our bird feeder.  There is a small hill separating our yard from our neighbor’s yard.  Look at how much snow is on top of our neighbor’s patio furniture!

This is our back door, propped open.

If I (or Bob) had thought to place a snow shovel on our front porch yesterday, I would have attempted to clear the snow from our sidewalk and at least part of our driveway. As it is, I do not have a pair of boots high enough to walk from our back door to the garage to get the shovel!

I took this photograph through our living room window.
Our neighbor’s foundation plants are topped high with snow.

I took a couple photographs, while standing on our front porch on a small square with little or no snow.

Looking in a westerly direction from our house

Looking in an easterly direction from our house

 We have had a very mild 2015-2016 Winter season, so I will not complain about Winter Storm Olympia.  Our school district has a snow day today, its first this Winter season…not bad for NW Pennsylvania, not bad at all.

Yes.  Winter is definitely here.  The most significant snowfall that we have had this Winter season is on the ground right now.

I took this photograph at 7:22 this morning.

Compare that photograph with one that I took 12 hours earlier.

I took this photograph at 7:46 pm last night.

Quite a bit of snow fell overnight!