Last weekend a terrific wind blew pretty much all over Alberta. We had gone to Calgary for an event and it was windy there. We heard wind warnings for areas further south – Lethbridge and Fort McLeod. And we experienced the strong winds driving home along highway 2 on Saturday afternoon. We were in a small vehicle… a Honda del Sol… which was buffeted by the winds pretty much the entire drive home.
When we drove up to our lodge (about 130 km NE of Edmonton) last night we were greeted by a large tree across our driveway. It was dark by the time we got here, so we couldn’t tell exactly what things looked like. Here is what we saw in the morning.
Tree across driveway as seen from front door of lodge.
From the other angle… the drive in, this is what we encountered:
Tree blocking driveway at entrance
Here is another shot showing the base of the tree at the break.
Base of tree at the break.
We were fortunate the wind was blowing the direction it was as there was the potential for this tree to have fallen on our truck, Fitzgerald, or onto the shop.
A few hours later, with the help of my trusty Husqvarna and my good friend Paul, the driveway was returned to normal.
As we cut the stump it became clear why this tree succumbed to the forces of nature. A parasite of some sort has been eating away at the inside… possibly carpenter ants? Here is a shot showing the internal rot. There was still a substantial amount of solid wood around the trunk, so it was obviously a terrific wind. We heard reports of gusts just over 100 km/h (60 mph).
We were fortunate in that this was the only damage. We heard a news report about a woman passenger being killed when the car she was in was struck by a falling tree. There were lots of other reports of damage as a result of the wind. So a tree falling across our driveway is a minor inconvenience in comparison.
