Hurricane Sandy

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If a tree falls in the woods and no one finds it is it still firewood? Best of luck to anyone that is in the path of this dangerous storm. Be safe.
 
Its been raining lightly all night here. Breezy right now with a few gusts around 30mph.
 
Sustained winds@ 20, gusting to 30-40, not much rain yet though
 
This morning it is 36 outside at my house and snowing but nothing on ground yet here.
 
Batten down the hatches, we're in for a blow!

Winds have us in their crosshairs. I've NEVER seen wave height predictions like this here. DH is going to get the video camera ready. I'm worried about my neighbors place, they are a lot closer to the lake than we are. This is down right scary, the wave height predictions are high enough to come over our cliff. Gale force wind gusts up to 60 knots and waves building to 16-22 feet. I hope my apple tree survives, it's right on the cliff edge. I planned on learning how to graft old limbs next year so I could save it in a way, since we know eventually we'll lose it to erosion.

Our marine forcast: http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/LO/042.html

We were hitting 20 mph gusts yesterday, but that' not that uncommon. I hope they let some of the water out through the dam in Massena so there's a little more beach/buffer for us. Additionally, the wind is set to hit us head on where our sliding glass dorrs are. I'm not sure how the stove is going to act either, we don't typically get northly winds in the winter....
 
Just took some before pics, hopefully the after will be the same. While doing this the deer are spooked, not bedding. Nice 8 pointer walked through and shook the wet off like a dog. Sandy is beginning her westerly turn. Will be downright nasty here from about noon to tomorrow morning. Raining heavy now.
 
I'm not sure how the stove is going to act either, we don't typically get northly winds in the winter....

If you need to run the stove in this weather, keep an eye on things (stay near the stove) as the winds could either give you more draft than normal, or if the stove is allowed to run low and slow, could actually reverse the flue and give you a down draft.

Regardless, I'd be running smaller loads of wood than normal and wouldn't snuff the air down too far.

ETA: I let the house warm up a bit more than I normally would have this morning by putting a small load in the stove. Right now, it's down to mostly coals so I just raked them forward and opened the air up all the way to burn them right down to nothing. I don't want to keep the air low, and then be surprised by a down draft, followed by the CO detector going off. If the house is cold later, I'll open the stove up and feel (smell) if the draft is going in the right direction or not. If it is in deed going up, I'll have another small hot fire. If I smell a bit of creosote or feel air moving down into the stove, I'll put a sweatshirt on the kids and wait till things straighten out to have a fire.

pen
 
Coming in here a little slower than expected. Steady rain and wind around 20-25. Gonna steadily increase to the 60 mph gust territory around four or five pm. Nine hundred without power so far.
 
If you need to run the stove in this weather, keep an eye on things (stay near the stove) as the winds could either give you more draft than normal, or if the stove is allowed to run low and slow, could actually reverse the flue and give you a down draft.

+1. We lit the fireplace last night (the open fireplace, just for ambiance - not cold enough to need the stove). When I woke up this morning downdrafts had blown ash all over the living room overnight!
 
Trees really starting to move now. Picking up...
 
If you need to run the stove in this weather, keep an eye on things (stay near the stove) as the winds could either give you more draft than normal, or if the stove is allowed to run low and slow, could actually reverse the flue and give you a down draft.

Regardless, I'd be running smaller loads of wood than normal and wouldn't snuff the air down too far.

pen

Thanks, that is the plan :) I know when we've had high winds before it typically has a monster draft, but usually they're more westerly. We will definately need to run it, it's been about 40 degrees out and it's definately NOT warm in there without it running when it gets that cool out. Small feedings are the SOP when it's really windy so it doesn't try to run away on us. I also try to use smaller softwood splits and NO ecobricks!

In fact, I noticed it's been drafting a bit more than usual and we've been eating wood faster the past two days or so-winds have been steadly above 10 and up to 20 mph according to the anemometer down by the wood stacks, so probably a little higher up on the roof.
 
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The high winds in this area will move in about 2:00 this afternoon, stay safe.

Zap
 
+1. We lit the fireplace last night (the open fireplace, just for ambiance - not cold enough to need the stove). When I woke up this morning downdrafts had blown ash all over the living room overnight!

Thankfully it was only ash and not coals that were blown out of the fireplace! :ZZZ !!!
 
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Thankfully it was only ash and not coals that were blown out of the fireplace! :ZZZ !!!

Quite true... Whenever we use it I make sure to let it burn down to to coals before going to bed. And we have a full screen on it that would catch any thrown coals.
 
This is the Big One 'lizebeth.
 
Craig, are you in RI or MA? What's it looking like for Aquidneck Island?
 
I'm in Mass. now.....RI has strong winds coming in from the east and northeast, but my guess is that since they have to come over land to get there, it won't be too bad. They will have stronger winds than we do, but are further out from the actual storm predictions.
 
Well the wind is starting to get a little stronger snow starting to stick in places and got the stove cranking at 500.

Edit. 85 in my living room.
 
For an interesting, real-time visual of what is happening check out this website. It's been fascinating to watch this giant low pressure system as it progresses slowly northward.

http://hint.fm/wind/
 
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Ha !! Bloomberg got his butt handed to him today.

There's no way, with the surges coming in, that NYC should be open. Even Long Island Sound is going to surge, big time, that's a rarity unto itself.

This is gonna be huge, huge.

Our cottage on the Sound in Old Saybrook got destroyed from 4 feet down last year with Irene. This surge is supposed to be twice that. Nuts. Insurance will not be happy with us.
 
Winds are picking up. Starting to drizzle a bit.

Glad I'm in the middle of the Island.

Winds are picking up here. School closed today and tomorrow. DH's business is closing at noon (never happens).Lost a small tree/big limb in the backyard onto the fence.

Cookies in oven (race against time!) and just put the cat in as I finally got the stovetop to 250 -er, I got tired of checking so it was 300 by the time I got it engaged. Seriously took almost an hour, as I was trying to build on small loads and they just kept shooting right off up the chimney. Filled it about 2/3 full and got the stovetop temp I wanted.
 
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