Extreme Conditions: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night!

I was planning to have a fairly quiet evening, working on a few projects... but now I'm not so sure.

Our weather around here is rather unpredictable, and just a few minutes ago, it was dead still outside... and now there's a heck of a storm blowing across everything!

To most people, I suppose that wouldn't really mean very much, but when you live some miles outside the city, and in a forested area... it means there's a high likelihood that we will be without electricity, pretty much at any moment. Or the Internet might go out, because it depends on cables running through aforesaid forest.

Of course, you get used to these sorts of conditions... we have been in our house here for 11 years now, and part of the "price" you pay for being near the coast with an ocean view is that you get the full force of incoming storms. In our case, those storms start out over the Pacific Ocean, and are pushed through the narrow straits between the Olympic Mountains and Vancouver Island.

As so, we just went from standstill to storm, in a matter of seconds. The graphic below shows the flat blue line of calm, followed by the sudden spike.

Of course, we've gotten used to it, over the years... particularly in late fall and throughout the winter.

We have about a dozen battery operated lanterns placed on shelves around the house, so if we suddenly are without electricity, we have light nearby. You also get in the habit of making sure your phone never drops below 50% charged, "just in case."

Even so, we also have a couple of "power backs" you'd normally use to jump start a car with, but can also be used to run laptops and charge phones for a couple of days, if need be.

On the whole, the power company has actually done a pretty good job of keeping things running... but there are always extreme events like the current one... and this weather system comes on the back of several days of heavy rain, so the ground is soft, meaning that the tree roots are in soft ground.

I wouldn't want to be on one of those crews having to go out there tonight trying to fix broken power lines!

Anyway, I am preparing myself for the potential of going to bed early tonight... so with that thought, I shall end this post here and wish everyone a good (and peaceful!) weekend!

How about YOU? Do you live in a place with frequent "extreme" weather? How do you prepare for it? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20221104 21:43 PDT
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