Storm Damage

  We'd had advance warning that late Wednesday (06/18) there would be the potential of severe weather. During the afternoon I watched the radar and that forecast quickly became a foregone conclusion.

NWS 06/18/25 3:39 PM

 Most of Indiana was placed under a Tornado Watch. I knew the storms would get here after 6 pm, the peak heating of the day and the most dangerous time for damaging thunderstorms.

 Later it looked like we might have a Tornado Watch of our own. We didn't ... but we had an area-wide Severe Thunderstorm Watch till 10 pm and also a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for us.

 Late afternoon I walked back to the field behind our house and watched the line approach. When I took these two shots the storms had just crossed the Ohio border and was no farther away than 20 miles. This first shot looks NW.

 And this one, minutes later, looks SW. I noticed that the line, which was advancing east, was being accompanied by two thunderstorm cells sliding NNE from the Cincinnati area. The  two met atop us.

 Just after 7 pm the storm was in full force. Our power went out about 7:10 pm and was off for about two hours. Tom got out a candle and lit it. Parker continued to play as usual. I read that nearly 50,000 AES customers were without power in the Greater Dayton area. We're lucky the power was restored before we went to bed.

 Now, the next  day (Thursday, 06/19) I went out for my morning walk back Millie's lane and the first thing I saw was a spruce which had been topped by the wind and the top laying across the barn roof.

 As I approached Millie's I saw that a tree was laying down in the field.

 It had fallen over, ripping its roots out of the ground and just lying down intact. Recent rains have made the ground soft. This storm, by the way, dropped 1.05".

 Back to our property, our wild cherry at the western edge, had a major limb snapped off.

 Another white pine lost a large branch.

 In our nature reserve, a tree snapped cleanly off and was laying in the path I mow.

 And yet another white pine lost its entire top. It's lying to the north of the tree in the nature reserve. We're going to have to have professional help with clean-up. This is too big of a job for two older guys. Plus we don't have the proper tools.

 Along Clayton Road branches of various catalpas lay in the yard (and also in the road just north of our property). They've been run over and mashed and were small enough to cause no traffic problems. I understand Farmersville Pike was closed with downed trees and power lines.

Our north lawn looks like all the others, covered with scattered debris. We'll be picking up limbs for days.

 On the bright side, I've found no damage to the house.

Added 06/19:

Credit: iWindSurf.com

Dayton wind speeds

 I wanted to mention that the airport recorded a high wind speed of 69 mph, pretty much at 7 pm. That's when we had all the damage.

 Another view of the White Pine nearest the potting shed.

 Tom's got quite a stack of twigs and branches to burn. We picked these up from the yard today.

 And here's a view of the path I mow through the nature reserve. There'll be no more mowing until we get this tree removed.

I called Westfield Insurance this morning and filed a claim. This afternoon a rep called back. I have a $2500 deductible for "hail and wind damage". I doubt this will cost that much to clear so it's all on my shoulders. I also called my tree guy but I haven't heard back yet.