Winds
 

I live on a pretty windy point on the lake and I have seen some very severe winds in my time here but nothing like I'm watching right now. I have no way of measuring it but if I had to guess I would say I'm looking at steady winds over 40 mph gusts of maybe 60mph plus. I'm watching ice fisherman out there fighting against it. They must be anchored down pretty good because so far the bob huts are staying put.

Blowin in the wind
 

Wind is blowing pretty good down here in southern NH but sounds nothing what you have there. It must be kinda fun sitting looking over the lake though an the wind gusts. I heard last night that alot of the ski areas might have to close down due to the winds today/night. Throw a log on the fire Mr Gato, its going to be getting real cold there.

Gusts are pretty strong in Gilford as well. You're probably right about the 40 mph steady winds and 60 mph gusts. Temps being dropping slowly but steadily as well.

You're not alone...

http://www.unionleader.com/article.a...0-b7f2454ddbd1

Also, a local advisory:

http://www.weatherunderground.com/cg...uery=03246#WND

Urgent - Weather Message
National Weather Service Gray Me
335 Pm Est Fri Feb 17 2006

...strong Winds Will Continue Through This Evening...

.a Strong Cold Front Will Exit Central Maine This Evening. In The Wake Of The Front...strong West Winds Will Continue Through The Evening Hours Across Western Maine And Northern...central And Southeast New Hampshire.

Winds Have Shifted To The West Or Southwest In All Locations As Of 300 Pm. After A Brief Lull In Some Locations...winds Are Now Gusting Above 50 Mph In Many Places In New Hampshire And Western Maine. A Peak Wind Of 63 Mph Was Observed At The Forecast Office Gray During The Past Half Hour.

Expect West Winds To Average Between 25 And 35 Mph Through The Evening Hours...with Gusts Approaching 70 Mph...especially In The Higher Terrain. Wind Speeds This High Will Result In Downed Trees And Power Lines Which Will In Turn Cause Additional Power Outages. Widespread Power Outages Have Already Been Reported In Western Maine.

The Strong Winds Are Expected To Slowly Diminishing Later Tonight.
Much Colder Air Rushing In Behind The Front...along With Falling Temperatures...will Produce Bitterly Cold Wind Chill Values Tonight.
Wind Chill Advisories Have Been Issued For The Mountains Of Northern New Hampshire And Western Maine Later Tonight And Saturday Morning.

After a brief calming, the winds have returned even stronger! I just returned from running errands, only to find that my front door actually blew open! Front room is full of leaves, and temp inside the house is brutal! :eek: House faces due west, and I fear the trees out front may not be able to withstand these winds!

Keep safe, everybody!

No Power
 

We haven't had power in the 19 Mile Bay area of Tuftonboro since around noon. Its 5 PM now and the winds are getting worse! Thank God for laptops with batteries and woodstoves! It's getting a little tough to hit the right keys though. I guess I'll have to get out the oil lamp.:(

Perhaps this could be of help:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...160-WB&cat=MOU

http://www.geeks.com/imageshare/S/30...60-WB-unit.jpg

The wind is doing some serious damage to the ice! Open water is quite visible on the weirs cam, and the view from Broadview shows a massive amount of broken ice blown onto the shore! :eek:

I'm fully expecting our power to go out at some point. This is some seriously nasty wind.

According to an updated article in today's Citizen online version, the winds are causing issues with numerous bobhouses in Meredith and along Paugus Bay.

I ran into Outlaw early this afternoon, and she indicated seeing several bobhouses on the bay which had literally blown over. Photos in the Citizen show some which actually blew off the ice and smashed onto the shoreline rocks. It's so severe out there, that one photo shows a gentleman forced to his knees to get off the ice.

Please everyone - use extreme caution, and stay safe!

On another weather-related note, the power in some sections of Laconia is presently out. Emergency responders are busy all over the county with downed trees and power lines. This is no doubt going to be a dangerous night!

Now way I'd be on the ice
 

As if the prior warm temps and already thin ice weren't enough ... then come the winds. I wonder what will be left in the AM ? Well I'll going to take some pictures tomorrow so I'll post anything interesting when I can. Think twice before taking that next step further out ...

It's WILD out there!
 

It's 10PM and I have the watch at my little power plant in Tamorth. Just had a gust of 61 MPH! Tough on the power grid. It is worse on the Lake!

Some UNH boys that are friends of my daughters (nuff said) are up for the derby. After some attempts at setting up the bob houses they gave up and are at my place with the wood stove and generator warming them. I guess that the 15 mile fetch from Alton bay to Long Island was too much for them.

I know that it is rough but they will have to skip the microwave popcorn and have to deal with Jiffy Pop and Texas hold"em poker!

Keep warm, keep dry and keep off of the ice!

Misty Blue

I couldn't respond sooner to this thread as our power was out yesterday afternoon from about noon until 3pm, and then again from around 4pm until almost 4am this morning. Trees were down everywhere, including two on our road that fell across electrical wires. Our weather station has battery backup and it recorded a gust of 53 mph at 6:28pm last night. Yesterday afternoon we watched one of the three bob houses near Treasure Island literally blow apart in the torrential wind, and pieces of it and its contents were strewn all over the ice. The wind is still howling here this morning at 15 - 25 mph, and we had a snow squall about an hour ago. Pretty tough conditions for all the fishermen out there.

I went by Alton Bay this morning and there were a few Bob houses blown over on their sides. I also saw a few trucks out there.

What a few days!
 

I'd hiked over to Mink on Thursday -- needed to do two portages -- one over a small corner of Bear to clear the first open water, and again across an island to clear a second span of questionable ice/open water. The walk from there was uneventful. 7-9 inches of black ice with a couple inches of slush on top. Had a nice relaxing rest of the day.

Friday, however, was another story altogether. Got up early to fish (and before the wind/rain set in), setting up only a couple hundred yards out from my place. When the initial breeze and rain came up in late morning, I returned back to the house, but the weather calmed down, so I went back out around noon-time. The wind started to pick up again fairly quickly so I went to bring in my two tip-ups. Literally, within a couple of minutes it went from a breeze to a gale. As I was gathering the last tip-up, the wind swept away my el cheapo plastic chair -- last I saw it was tumbling across the lake towards the gap between Jolly and Camp. I grabbed the rope to the sled and watched the lid to my bait bucket fly off and disappear downwind. Then the sled itself lifted like a kite and flipped -- dumping a couple dozen smelt and all my gear onto the ice. I gathered what I could, but saw gloves, a kneeling cushing, a package of worms, the bait bucket, etc., all go racing down the lake. I loaded the auger into the sled to weigh it down, and raced to catch the few items than were not already a hundred yards away. I recovered all but the bait bucket, the chair and the blade cover for the auger. Took me more than 15 minutes to drag myself parallel to the wind towards my camp. Never felt so completely exposed to the elements before. Such a violent wind. Branches of trees were blowing across the lake for hours. Chunks of the ice pack broke up all around the perimeter of Mink making exit options a bit challenging. And of course the power went out.... Don't expect to see it until Spring since the Co-op makes repairing the island lines a low priority and given the concerns about the ice this year, they may well wait for ice-out. Had enough gas to run the gererator for a couple of days, but bailed out this morning since I was "baitless" from my mis-adventure the day before and with more wind today, thought I wouldn't wait to see if more of the ice opened up. Followed my route back from Thursday but had to deal with snow squalls and and strong headwind. Now I know why I go to the gym 5 days a week. As they say in the movie Apollo 13 (wife's favorite movie) -- a successful failure. Quite an adventure.

Oh, caught a couple decent lake trout and a 2-3 pound smallie. Not much of a fishing weekend!

Wind damage in Gilford -- downed trees
 

Pending approval under the "WEATHER" Gallery on this site are a couple of photos of damage from yesterday's high winds.

A very large and (what seems to be) healthy pine was snapped at above 6 feet above the ground...it fell toward the street and right into the "Y" of another tree, resulting in that tree starting to split right down the middle. Needless to say, we need to call a professional to take them down before they take out the telephone junction box for our street!

Hope you all fared well!

Hey Gato
 

I heard there was some severe damage to some houses from fallen trees in your old neighborhood. Have you heard anything? I haven't heard whose houses and haven't been able able to get up there recently.

We finally got power back at 6Am this morning after 18 hours out. Thankfully the wood stove kept the house a toasty 76 degrees. We took a ride around the lake today. Lots of trees down. Several bob houses at the Long Island bridge (Trexler's side) were blown into the water and smashed. A very large white pine landed on the house which is the office of the Long Island campground. Lots of trees down in the Kona neighborhood on Long Island.

The majority of the bob houses seem to be in Center Harbor instead of Meredith this year. It certainly isn't lke last year. I think many folks heeded the caution of the "officials" and new stories. We did notice some "Darwin's theory candidates" fishing on the edge of the ice under the Gov. Island Bridge. I mean literally 2-3 feet from the edge of the ice!!! Not too many in Alton Bay or Wolfeboro Bay. One jackpot area is 19 Mile Bay, lots of trucks, ATV's and houses. I hope we don't hear any bad news.

I just spoke with my husband who is up there at our house with his college buddies for the derby and they STILL have no power. We are in Kona Shore area, Hauser Estates near cooks point. Thank god for the generator. I think they're nuts!!! Our crank up obtained heavy damage when the bolt holding it to the tree came out and the frame of the dock went smashing into the ice. This weather is just plane crazy....i never gave global warming too much creedance until now. I wonder if this is covered under our home owners?:( Stay safe and warm.

Wind Damage
 

. . . power still out on Spindle Point in Meredith . . . hope all the anti-freeze in the drains and toilets work. It was amazing to see the white caps between the Weirs and Meredith Neck - it seemed like April ice-out on Friday!

KonaChick - I'm not surprised to hear the power is still out up there. Last night I heard the dispatchers calling for Fire Trucks and an ambulance - a Father and his two children were stuck in their car near the entrance to Hauser Estates. A tree had fallen on the road, blocking their exit forward, and the wires had fallen behind and were arcing in the street. They were trapped between the two. This was at around 11:00 last night.

When the FD arrived, they gave the pole information to the dispatcher and requested that he notify the power company that it was an emergency. The dispatcher said "I understand, and I'll pass along the message, but I don't expect you'll see anyone until sometime tomorrow!" :eek: The line crews have been working non-stop, and there are still many neighborhoods without power all over the county.

I agree with you - the guys are nuts!!! :D

Here's the links to your pics, Gravyboat. nice shots.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...5&limit=recent

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...4&limit=recent

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...3&limit=recent

Glad to see it is apparently only tree damage.

Couple seasons ago -
 

We lost 6 King Pines on our property on Long Island from a similar squall line, roughly around the same time of year - may have been March. Sadly we have since parted with that property - but does anyone know how the Wildwood Neighbohood on Long Island faired during the wind storm? Tall trees, and small homes, lend itself for trouble in that area.

Drh
 

As we are in Florida we are always interested in your weather/lake reports. Have there been any additional power outages in the area since yesterday morning?
We did check on-line with the WMUR-TV site and read about the area having many trees toppled in the storm.
Hope everyone escaped without any injuries.

LL6,
Our power has stayed on since the 12-hour outage on Friday night/Saturday morning, even though it was very windy here again yesterday. (We had a gust of 52 mph between 12 noon and 1pm yesterday.) I think power has been restored to most of the people in this area who lost power on Friday, but some other areas of the state may not have power restored until tomorrow or even Tuesday.

Drh
 

Thanks for the update. It must have been quite unsettling to have the wind speed so high. Hopefully there were no serious problems for those taking part in the Derby.
Looking forward to returning mid-April.

For those of you registered with the Laconia Citizen, they have presented a mini slide-show of fishermen coping with the winds during the derby.
WIND & THE ICE-FISHING DERBY

Not exactly lakes region but I was out of power for 34 hours from 2:00 pm Friday till midnight Saturday in Bedford.Numerous trees and telephone poles down everywhere.Friday,Cannon Mt. closed down due to lightning!I returned home Saturday from the white mountains to find my house at 42 degrees!Thank goodness I had a generator.One bit of bad news.My work partner's friend was struck by a falling tree outside her Bedford home.She is in tough shape with a broken back and paralyzed from the waist down.It was a pretty hairy day out there Friday.

We had a light dusting of snow Saturday morning. About 10:00 I watched a funnel cloud that picked up that light snow fall roughly 100 feet high and 30 feet wide start at spindle point and blow clean over to goveners island. and that was 18 hours after the wind was supposed to stop blowing!

Siksukker - I'm sorry to hear about your friend's injury. I'll keep her in my prayers.

Thanks Pepper.