Good Friday storm

March went out like a lion delayed.  On Good Friday we awoke to a gale that had built up overnight and was blowing close to 60 km/h in the morning.  The surf was coming straight at us - a classic southeasterly and the rain was heavy.

By 10:00 the gale had strengthened and was gusting at 80 km/h and higher out in the Strait.  Around mid day, I was working in our loft room and an unholy crash sounded above my head.  Upon further inspection we found 8 large branches, each more than 3 meters long and 5 cms thick that had come flailing off a neighbour's Douglas-fir and hit the north side of our house.  No damage to the roof - although I'll need to get up there and have a better look.  Our neighbours suffered a worse fate though when a Douglas-fir came down on their power lines.

Around noon we lost power and it was off all night and clear through the next morning.  All told 24 hours without power which was beat by homes on the west side of the island who were out for nearly 36 hours after a large hemlock fell across the Grafton Road by the entrance to Artisan Square.  It was the second tree this year to fall across the road there.

There was a a lot of duff down on the roads but not too much other damage.  Our neighbour Kay lost some shingles, but we all came through all right.  However walking down on Pebbly Beach today there were two boats washed up on the beach: the two master Sid Sirrocco and the smaller eponymous Diduin which was lying above the high tide line on its side by the beach access.  The Sid Sirrocco was leaking oil all over the beach and the smell of diesel is strong there.  Hopefully it will be gone soon.

Thinking that this is probably the last big storm of the year, but we'll see.  It has been a strong El Nino year and there is a lot of energy in the atmosphere.  A series of lows and strong fronts over the past three weeks has brought really unsettled weather to the region and we have a strong high building off the coast but it hasn't been able to sneak this far north yet so it is steering all the storms over us.  Spring is sprung.