10 February 2009

Stormy weather

It's early Monday afternoon and we are watching the journal télévisé on France 2 TV. All the news is about a big windstorm we are supposed to have starting about nightfall today.

We may not have electricity tomorrow morning so I thought I'd post this now for delayed publication tomorrow morning.

Météo France has posted this map showing wind speeds tonight.
The number in red shows gusts as opposed to sustained winds.
It's all in kilometers per hour, of course — 100 kph = 60 mph.

Winds at Saint-Aignan are supposed to be as high as 70 mph — hurricane force is 74 mph — for several hours starting around midnight. We have two huge cedar trees just next to our house, and in these situations we always cross our fingers that they will not blow over. We'll probably be up all night.

Our neighbor has two very tall pine trees right next to his house, and we hope those won't fall on his place. And we hope our roof tiles won't start flying all around the hamlet. Temperatures are supposed to be in the high 40s or low 50s F.

With any luck, the storm will be less intense than predicted, or it will go north of us. We'll see. More tomorrow.

P.S. 6:30 p.m. No significant wind yet, though it has been raining off and on all afternoon.

8 comments:

  1. I'll be thinking of you and hoping you don't have any damage! It sounds like a terrible storm.

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  2. It's about 2:00 a.m. chez vous, and I'm hoping all is well. Interestingly, we've had huge winds today, too.... nothing like 70 mph, but approaching 40 mph. Crazy temps... in the 60s (F), and Tuesday may hit 70 or above!!! It was below zero several weeks ago!

    Good thoughts to you guys....
    Judy

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  3. It is pretty windy here this morning... I hope you guys aren't too bad and still have power!

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  4. Anxiously awaiting your return to the blog and a good report of minimal damage...I assume you lost power.

    I noticed your conversation with "Bob" yesterday and recognized him as a good friend of ours. He and his wife are avid Francophiles and food/wine lovers. Our best trip to France was a week in the Gard with them a couple of years ago. It was their job (if it can be called a job) every day to cruise the area vignerons and return with a few bottles of booty. They were admirably up to the task of supply and we all happily performed the task of demand.

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  5. Hope all is well there. We had no damage but lots of wind, but not nearly what Météo France announced.

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  6. Bon courage--I hope all trees and tiles are still in place.

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  7. Hope everything's okay for you and your property.

    Here, it is much cooler than usual, in the low to mid 60s. J.L sends her best to you and Walt. She's a little disappointed by the temperature, hoping to find here much better weather than she had in D.C. Yesterday we had a little rain.

    I just checked outside, there is snow on the mountains right in the back of us. That happens very seldom, but it's the second time this year. It won't stick long. Up north, Palm Springs, also, had a lot of rain yesterday and, no doubt, the mountains there are covered with snow. It's spectacular!

    Waiting for news on the blog on how you made it.

    Is the suitcase ready yet?

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  8. Ken

    Hope everything is fine with both of you . CDG was closed yesterday because of high winds.

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