Midwest Wind Storm

It was a memorable, history-making storm that many people across the country were affected by. Some say it's the worst storm to hit the Midwest in decades and it produced the lowest atmospheric pressure on record in the state of Minnesota. Its pressure was as low as a category three hurricane - and yet, it was purely a land-based storm. What an incredible storm it was. Not only did it produce a fury of wind and rain, but it also spawned severe weather further south along the cold front. North Dakota and Minnesota were hit with early season snows, even causing blizzard conditions with the high winds. Waves on Lakes Michigan and Superior were as high as 20 to 25 feet. We probably won't see a storm like this for quite some time - if ever again!

I was in a couple of different locations through the duration of the storm. In the area where I live, we were spared the worst of the damaging winds. Don't get me wrong, the winds were still very strong. But no visible damage could be seen around the neighborhood. I have a bunch of jack pine trees on the east and north side of my property and I was certain that at least one of those would come down in the wind event. But they held strong and not one fell. Some of you may not know, but jack pine is a soft wood and they are very susceptible to breaking in high winds. I had a flag pole come apart and the American flag on it was whipping around in the storm. The flag got a bit tattered but it looks to be usable next summer. My windsock also disappeared from the hook I had it attached to, but I later found it in the backyard, the strings all broken from the wind. But that was the extent of "damage" I found at my house.

Out at my parents house a half-hour drive away, they lost power for about a half hour on Tuesday but that was the longest the power was out. A few other locations around the area were without power for a few days. I noticed part of a pine tree had come down in my great uncle's yard - the one that I mow their lawn and rake the leaves in the fall. But even out there, the damage was fairly minimal. Just a few trees down here and there and some scattered power outages. Other than that, we seemed to have survived the wind storm quite well.

Other areas of the U.P. weren't so lucky, though. Areas in the southern U.P. appeared to be hit the worst from the storm. Lots of trees and power outages there. I know many, many radio stations had gone off air after losing power at their transmitter towers. Thankfully though, it was a storm that could have been much worse. You look at the destruction many communities dealt with after severe weather moved through their respective areas. October usually isn't a month where you see a widespread severe weather outbreak. But for a storm like the one we saw this past week, anything is possible.

We can all rest easy now for the major wind storm of 2010 is all but history. The National Weather Service station in Duluth, Minnesota is calling the storm the North American Extratropical Cyclone of October 26-27. In all honesty, the storm was deserving of its own name just like a hurricane because of its ferocity. However, memories of this storm will live on for a long while as people continue to clean up their yards, their communities, and their homes from the damage. The storm definitely lived up to its hype and it won't soon be forgotten by many people.