Another foggy morning here in the Deschutes NF, then ..

[DemoTex]

The killer storm came about noon. It was a card-carrying weather monster. "Blow winds! Crack your cheeks!," (Wm. Shakespeare .. The Tempest) came to mind. The storm came right over the lookout. Lightning flashed cloud-to-cloud, but mercifully there were no ground or tower strikes.

I sat on my lightning stool (big glass insulators for feet) and watched the cosmos from the bowels of what the National Weather Service called a severe thunderstorm. If you were in the Redmond area, you got it later. The hail covered the top of the butte like snow and the temperature plunged to 40-degrees F. Then, for about a minute it snowed. All the while the guy-wires of the tower sang in 60-knot winds. And I loved every damn minute of it! Pig in shit.

By early afternoon the sun broke through in time to give me several hours of good photo-voltaic (solar) battery charging. Thus I am working on a laptop powered by a 12-volt 72-amp battery bank, as opposed to a gasoline generator like last night (which also charges the battery whenever it runs). It is a DemoTex-designed and built power system. And all who see it are in awe, as well they should be (30-watt solar panel, AGM batteries, Anderson Powerpole connectors .. etc).

The lookout tower has a solar powered battery bank too, for the USFS radios, cell phone, and a couple of lights. I don't use that for my personal needs, but I am using Uncle Sugar's gas lights tonight for keyboard illumination. Thank you taxpayers!

I am watching the sun set behind Paulina Peak and the Three Sisters. There are lots of clouds so the sky is very red. It's back down to 48-degrees now. Nick-Nick is in the beddie-bye and I am not far behind him .. as soon as Mahler's #1 is over.


The lookout in the fog at 07:30 today (that's my pickup to the left)

[TahitiNut]

1. Has Nick found any skunk yet? Rabbits? Possum?

How's his nose enjoying the air?


:envy: :envy: :envy: :envy: :envy: :envy: :envy: :envy:

[DemoTex]

3. Deer and chipmunks .. beaucoup. GI!

There is a salt lick at the base of the lookout. Nick gives chase to the deer, than goes after the chipmunks.

[Speck Tater]

2. I was looking forward to its arrival, but it pretty much missed Eugene. :( nt

[DemoTex]

4. I'm told a child was struck by lightning yesterday in La Pine.

Critical condition as of early this AM.

[Suich]

5. They were talking about that storm on the news here...

possible tornadoes. I was wondering if you were in the middle of it...yikes! Sounds like you were!

As soon as my neighbor shows me how to use the "fly to..." feature on Google Earth, I'll be able to zero right in on you!

Rock on!



:hi:

sorry, didn't mean to be insensitive. I didn't hear about the child who was struck by lightning...hope they're ok.

[DemoTex]

6. N 43.6671500002291 W -120.995750000447

Lat/Lon

[TahitiNut]

9. Oh! There you are. Circular drive and all! +43° 40' 1.74", -120° 59' 44.70"

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=43.6671500002291+-120.995750000447&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.631106,44.560547&ie=UTF8&ll=43.66722,-120.995752&spn=0.001987,0.00272&t=h&z=18&iwloc=A

Sure is a LOT of green around them parts, GI. :silly:

[DemoTex]

11. Tomorrow: Township/Range/Section/Quarter Section

The "legal" that we work with. Another way to find DemoTex!

[bkkyosemite]

13. Demo where are you in Oregon..I'm in Medford been a crazy week stay safe..

[bkkyosemite]

14. Found you...You are on the other side of the Cascades NE of me..yes you had a crazy day today!

[DemoTex]

16. Shit hitting fan again now

Close lightning. Signing off!

[knowbody0]

7. I was on the top of Pikes Peak in Okanagon

territory during a storm like that. you will never ever be the same! how exciting. i'm betting you are writing a book.

[DemoTex]

8. The book is the reason I'm here.

It seemed to work for Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, and Gary Snyder. Lookouts all .. in the '50s. Read "Poets on the Peaks."

But the worst storm I've ever been in was on top of Chewalkla "Mountain" south of Auburn, Alabama in 1965. A friend and I were camping there. The lightning came in fireballs. He reminded me of it the other day. I said, "I dream it every night! It's more vivid than Viet Nam."

[TahitiNut]

10. "A Summer With Nick-Nick"

Sure beats "Looking For Charlie." :scared:

[knowbody0]

18. what fodder for writing

that energy is absolutely magical. thanks for the recommend!

[FightingIrish]

12. I've lived in Oregon all my life and I've never seen a string of storms like this.

We've had close strikes near Medford every night since Saturday. The finale tonight was just one cell that came right over the house and really shook things up. My son had gusts over fifty mph earlier in the week on his weather station on the valley floor. He was on fire duty with BLM several days during the week and got to fall his first burning tree. I really hope this isn't a sign of what's in store for the summer.

[DemoTex]

15. I salute your son .. tough, dangerous work.

But I now know how well prepared and qualified these USFS and BLM crews are. Yesterday one of our (I'm USFS) crews called me on TAC-1 to let me know they would be hiking my butte.

Clueless, I asked why.

PT, the crew-leader replied.

They poured out of their USFS trucks at the base of the lookout, donned 50# packs, slung big chain saws over their shoulders, and commenced to hike down the FS-700 road. An hour later they returned. The crew-leader yelled, "Let's do it again!" They did.

They came back up and took a break at a picnic table below my tower. They pulled out their firefighter cards and quizzed each other.

Amazing young people! Kind of like us in basic in the 1960s.

UH-OH! LIGHTNING! CLOSE STRIKE. I'm OFF!

[PufPuf23]

19. The Klamath/Siskiyou Mountain area has been hammered by

intermittent but intense thunder and lightening and heavy rain to cloudy blue sky and another storm cycle the past several days.

I worked for the usfs from 1969 to 1985; from Youth Opportunity Corp as a teen to professional forester and resigned as a district silviculturist at age 32.

There used to be far more lookouts and firecrews and hotshots and smokejumpers and proactive work (brush disposal, prescribed fire, thinning dense stands, and the like). There were not the out of area overhead crews and there was more National Guard and inmate labor on campaign fires. This was an interesting time because the usfs chnaged from a forester/forest tech/engineer/fireman of mostly white males, and many Korean and WWII vets with hiring preference to NEPA, NFMA, Antiquities Act, Endangered Species Act. etc and the advent of a more formal planning process with public involvement as well as a slew of specialists (fish and wildlife biologists, geologists/soil scientists, archeologists/sociologists, etc.) and the influx of women and minorities into professional and field positions (there were no woman firefighters until 1973 that I recall). The changes were good and direction positive but the new world was still in flux; but Ronald Reagan made the effort a joke and that contributed to my resignation.

Its a shame that the physical effort and resources and salary used by the usfs firecrews was not used in productive vegetation management for forest health and/or fire protection rather than PT.

I climbed Mattehorn Peak north of Yosemite on an Outward Bound Program in Fall 1969 and thought of Kerouac.

[bkkyosemite]

17. Really weird here in Medford..I feel like it's going on two weeks that we have had this weather.

The one 4 days ago was the worst. Then I got caught in one a couple days ago in Rogue River. Wow even Ca is getting hit unusually. My niece in Chico Ca said last night they had 1000 strikes in an hour. Her husband is weather man for local station. It was very strong he said like Back East. Unusual for our area.

[Hannah Bell]

22. it's been a little funny here in southern washington too - a week of heat & mugginess

like the deep south the last two days. i was thinking it felt like we should be having heat lightning & thunder, but tonight it finally broke in a long rain & the mugginess is gone.

[ORDagnabbit]

20. nice. n/t

[arcadian]

21. I've been on top of South Sister.

When I climbed Mount Shavano in the Sawatch Range in Colorado there were strikes hitting below the area where I took shelter, a small rock outcrop(which they say you should never take shlter under in a lightning storm). That is weird seeing lighting hit below you. Also had my hair stand up on Mount Sherman and heard cracckling and popping. Not good. Didn't get hit though.

[depakid]

23. That would have been a radical spot to have been during the storm!

You might have seen that a kid from La Pine went out to watch and got hit by lightening.

Shortly before he was struck by a 50,000-degree bolt of lightning, 14-year-old Austin Melton of La Pine dismissed a warning by a friend not to go outside to watch the thunderstorm rumbling overhead.

According to his father, Chuck Melton, his happy-go-lucky son said, "What are the chances of getting struck?"

About 1 in 700,000, according to the National Weather Service.

On Wednesday afternoon, Austin, an eighth-grader at La Pine Middle School, went to La Pine High School to play basketball. About 6:15 p.m., one of the more than 10,000 lightning strikes unleashed by the dozens of thunderstorms that hit the state Wednesday struck him on the head.

Austin's brother, Derrick, 19, said it appeared lightning entered Austin's body through the top of his head and through his chest. His shoes burned so badly that one melted onto his ankle, leaving a severe burn that may require a skin graft, Derrick Melton said.

Derrick said his brother walked alone across the field toward the bleachers and was struck by lightning.

"It was a really big thing of lightning," he said. "He was the only person who went outside."

At a news conference Thursday, Chuck Melton said that when he first heard the news his son was struck by lightning, he went "numb." By the time he arrived at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, a feeling of peace had come over him.

"Somehow, I just knew everything was going to be fine," he said, before making the journey from Bend to Portland with his son in a medical helicopter.

By Thursday morning, he was "overwhelmed with joy" that his son had survived.

"I've told him before to stay under cover when there's thunder and lightning," Melton said.

Melton said his son did not remember what happened to him. His eyes got very large when he was told he was struck by lightning, Melton said.

Dr. Chris Kaufmann, who is treating Austin at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, said the boy also suffered burns to his face, abdomen and chest and has a perforated eardrum.

The burns on his chest, Kaufmann said, were probably caused by his sweat flashing into steam and scalding him. Austin's condition was upgraded from serious to fair Wednesday afternoon, and Kaufmann said he could be out of the hospital in a week.

Unlike some survivors who are knocked unconscious or go into cardiac arrest, Austin was awake and combative when paramedics reached him. Because his heart did not stop, Kaufmann said, he probably will be spared the neurological difficulties, personality changes and other mental problems some survivors experience.

"He's extremely lucky," Kaufmann said. "He is awake and talking to us, moving his arms and legs. We expect him to make a full recovery."


More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/la_pine_teen_hospitalized_afte.html

[XOKCowboy]

24. Happy to give you the 5th Rec.

Thanks for the updates DT. Thanks for what you're doing also. Hey did you see where WilliamPitt was asking your opinion on the Air France tragedy?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5783849&mesg_id=5783849

[lonestarnot]

25. Looks cool!

[Thothmes]

26. Have you been in the tower when it was struck?

On afternoon, I watched a storm work its way up from the south, cross the Columbia and just beat the hell out of the GP. Hundreds of lighting strikes that night. My tower was struck 3 times during that storm. Sounded like a bomb going off over your head and the sky around the tower flashed like a giant flash bulb. If I could see a strike clearly, I would get an azimuth on it and run a grease pencil line on the map. That way could check the area early the next morning. Violated procedures thought, stay in chair, touch nothing. Fortunatley, much rain came with the storm and we did not have any fires started. Heard later that the same storm had started dozens of fires on the east slope of the Cascades north of Mt. Jefferson.

[Born_A_Truman]

27. This is so interesting...

I really enjoy your updates. Next time you're in town why not get one of those little battery operated book lamps you can clamp on your laptop for reading?

Do you get to grill your food or is that a fire hazard? Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, but I'm interested in the day to day of this, like how do you keep your food refrigerated, etc.

Hope you're adding this to your journal at some point!

ETA: Just saw you updated your journal. Great!

Love to see pix of Nick-Nick and your living arrangements if that's not too private.

[Blue_Tires]

28. i'm lost...is nick-nick a dog or a pet?

and i was wondering in another thread how isolated you were...how often do you see another person?

[SidDithers]

29. Keep posting, Mac...

these threads are some of the best on DU.

Eagerly awaiting further dispatches,

Sid

[Boxerfan]

30. I very much would have enjoyed being (safely) in the center. We caught the edge & it was wild.

We had the warnings on the radio & these were very urgent. Although my area just got the edge of the storm me & my youngest daughter watched it from the window. I recanted stories of thunderstorms from my youth in Texas. Except for some debris in the kiddie pool & some potted plants blown around-we were fine.Great show.

I'm in Fairview, just east of Portland. I love it here but the winds can be freaky coming down the Columbia river gorge.

Thanks for the "Blow by Blow"

Carl.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. "Blow, wind ..." is from the King Lear storm scene

not The Tempest:

Enter Lear and Foole.
Lear.
Blow wind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blow
You caterickes, & Hircanios spout til you haue drencht,
The steeples drown'd the cockes, you sulpherous and
Thought executing fires, vaunt-currers to
Oke-cleauing thunderboults, singe my white head,
And thou all shaking thunder, smite flat
The thicke Rotunditie of the world, cracke natures
Mold, all Germains spill at once that make
Ingratefull man.


http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Lr/Q1/Scene/3.2

[DemoTex]

33. I bet I'm not the first to attribute that line to "The Tempest" ..

Thanks for the correction. D.A. Traversi I ain't.

[OregonBlue]

32. We were working outside and unaware of the approach. Got hit hard and

had to run for it. Very scary. I watched it from the middle of the living room and it was so intense I was afraid to get near the windows or doors. One of the most wonderful displays I've ever seen. As you said, fortunately, it was accompanied by LOTS of rain so no wildfires here. We're East of the Cascades, in the rain shadow of Mt. Hood.

[gratuitous]

34. That was colossal

Don't get used to it; Oregon doesn't see that much severe weather. I was bicycling home yesterday after work, when I crested Harrison at 26th heading east. At 28th, the trees were positively dancing in the wind. It looked like a mosh pit at a particularly cranked rave party.

I rode another five miles or so home in some of the most godawful wind I've seen since the 1964 Columbus Day storm. The rain didn't quite arrive in time to drench me, but Mrs. gratuitous was very happy to see me make it home safely. Many downed branches, both small and alarmingly large on the way home, but none of them had my name on them.