Woodstove fire in high wind weather

[oddodaoddo]

Hello, we are about to start experiencing a high wind event here in Virginia. Sustained winds of 40mph with gusts up to 60 or 70mph are supposed to start tonight and go on all day tomorrow and into Saturday morning. Since the ground is saturated with rainfall, trees are expected to come down and power may be out for a while. This is my first year with a wood stove - should I start a fire with such high winds outside? What are the risks? Sorry if I sound naive but with such high winds, is there risk of the air coming back down into the wood stove at high speed and causing an issue?

Thanks!

 

[Berl2169]

I wouldn’t think so. I’ve run mine with high winds and no problems. There may be others that have different experiences though.


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[firefighterjake]

It's possible if your draft is marginal to start with . . . but usually this is not an issue. I have run my stove through many a blizzard or wind storm.

 

[Happy Stacker]

If your chimney is installed correctly in regards to clearances to roofline and trees you should have no problems.

 

[Knots]

It's windy as heck right now and I'm burning. It might burn slightly different with the wind sucking on the straw, but I don't have any concerns. My experience is only with my set-up though, and I have a real strong draft to begin with.

 

[XmasTreefarmer]

I'm thinking that starting with a small might be a good idea. There are so many factors that can affect this. We live in a hilly area of WI and our house is just below a ridge that runs around the West and North of the house. The lay of the land plays huge tricks with the wind here. Sometimes the wind will be out of the North, but if you go down below the house and burn some brush, it will appear to be directly out of the South! So under certain higher wind conditions, I'll get some interesting "swirling" and "down drafting" air currents that can cause an occasional "back puff" My chimney is all good, heights above the roof line, etc. all good, but none of that can take into consideration weird, swirling, down drafting winds.

 

[Zack R]

The high winds wouldn't concern me as much as the idea that I might have to leave the house due to fallen trees, power lines down on the lawn, etc. It wouldn't be ideal to be in a situation where there is still a fire going in the stove and you are trying to put it out before leaving home.

If after the major wind moves through the area and you are safe at home then by all means fire it up.

 

[Bootstrap]

The high winds wouldn't concern me as much as the idea that I might have to leave the house due to fallen trees, power lines down on the lawn, etc. It wouldn't be ideal to be in a situation where there is still a fire going in the stove and you are trying to put it out before leaving home.

If after the major wind moves through the area and you are safe at home then by all means fire it up.

Why would you leave?
All the above sounds like more reason to stay home.

 

[Manly]

Why would you leave?
All the above sounds like more reason to stay home.

Yes why? Stand your ground, Man up and hold your position. Manly

 

[Zack R]

Why would you leave?
All the above sounds like more reason to stay home.

Normally I would stay but I was thinking if a tree fell on the house, etc... while a fire was going. There was a major storm last spring in western Washington and we were in Olympia visiting my wife's folks. A 100' douglas fir in their front yard split at the ground level and was leaning toward the house so we had to leave until a tree service could come take it down. While out and about we saw dozens of homes literally cut in half by fallen trees (saturated soils and high winds). We lost power for about 4 days, many others much longer.

If you don't live around tall trees I wouldn't worry as much about staying.

 

[toddnic]

I've run my wood stove in the midst of high winds. Occasionally I might get a little smoke smell in the house, but overall there has never been a problem. Stay warm! We are in the western NC mountains and the storm came through yesterday and last night. You should handle it just fine if it is what we experienced.

 

[begreen]

It's blowing steady at 50mph + on Cape Cod right now. Stay away from trees in this wind.

 

[dh1989]

50 MPH gusts in RI yesterday. I did a cold start and the super draft lit the wood from a super cedar like a blow torch. I dialed the thermostat down lower than normal to compensate for the extra draft. After that I had the usual dark box and active cat with no issues.