Death of a beam

[TimmyTheTorch]

We have recently started going through our horde of old pictures and sending ones on to people that were in them and that may appreciate a blast from the past. I even encountered ones I forgot I had taken.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted a beam on a tower. Finally in November, 1997 I was able to make it happen. I had a Maco Comet up on a 40 foot tower to go with what I think was a HR2510. Everything was working great. This was just south of Ottawa, Ontario.

Then during the first week of January, 1998, freezing rain started to fall. And fall. And fall. Trees, power lines, power poles, transmission towers etc were all dropping like flies. Our power ended up being out for 11 days but we were fortunate in that we had a wood stove and a whole bunch of firewood. We could not secure a generator but we managed to get by without it.

I can almost hear the new beam crying out for mercy. This is another reason why I can't have nice things.

 

[Blackcat630]

Reminds of pics of your car before and after a wreck. Sorry you only got to play with it for a couple months..

 

[Eldorado828]

We have recently started going through our horde of old pictures and sending ones on to people that were in them and that may appreciate a blast from the past. I even encountered ones I forgot I had taken.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted a beam on a tower. Finally in November, 1997 I was able to make it happen. I had a Maco Comet up on a 40 foot tower to go with what I think was a HR2510. Everything was working great. This was just south of Ottawa, Ontario.

Then during the first week of January, 1998, freezing rain started to fall. And fall. And fall. Trees, power lines, power poles, transmission towers etc were all dropping like flies. Our power ended up being out for 11 days but we were fortunate in that we had a wood stove and a whole bunch of firewood. We could not secure a generator but we managed to get by without it.

I can almost hear the new beam crying out for mercy. This is another reason why I can't have nice things.

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That had to have been a complete kick in the nuts right there. Mother nature can be brutal!

Around here it the intense spring time wind storms and they're unlike anything in the country. I've lost a fair share of antlers to sustained 60-70 with nearly 100 mph gusts during the spring. Mother nature will take them out.

 

[fourstringburn]

That had to have been a complete kick in the nuts right there. Mother nature can be brutal!

Around here it the intense spring time wind storms and they're unlike anything in the country. I've lost a fair share of antlers to sustained 60-70 with nearly 100 mph gusts during the spring. Mother nature will take them out.

Very extreme!

Where in Texas are you?

The only area I know with extreme winds like that is in the Guadalupe mountains along the NM border between El Paso and Carlsbad NM.

 

[Eldorado828]

Very extreme!

Where in Texas are you?

The only area I know with extreme winds like that is in the Guadalupe mountains along the NM border between El Paso and Carlsbad NM.

You've never been to the panhandle in the spring my friend, give it a visit the coming spring and you'll never forget it. Do a search for Amarillo Tx wind storms and you'll find a bunch including 18 wheelers getting toppled across i40 and i27. It gets nasty!

 

[fourstringburn]

You've never been to the panhandle in the spring my friend, give it a visit the coming spring and you'll never forget it. Do a search for Amarillo Tx wind storms and you'll find a bunch including 18 wheelers getting toppled across i40 and i27. It gets nasty

I know the north Panhandle area very well as I have driven big rigs thru there hundreds of times for over 35 years. Most commonly during the spring windy season the winds gust up to 50-55 mph but yes there are times when they exceed that but it's not a regular occurrence like in the Guadalupe mountains area of SW Texas which is what I was getting at.

High winds are common in the early spring for us in NM too but also in AZ and Colorado, especially around Walsenburg.

I do drive a lot of empty unloaded miles in this region between loads so I always pay close attention to wind forecasts for my own safety.

This past year in Magdalena NM ( west of Socorro) had a peak wind gust of 94 mph and Tucumcari, Portales, and Clines Corners all had gusts just over 80 mph. These are frequent extreme high wind areas but not usually that high.

However, the highest wind gust recorded in Amarillo is 81 mph which is a serious gust of wind!


The highest wind speed recorded was 84 mph from the southwest on May 15, 1949. A tornado passed within 0.8 miles of the station.

*This was a one minute wind speed. We have only recorded peak gusts on climate forms since 1971. Since then, the peak gust is 81 mph recorded on April 19, 1973, June 19, 2008, and July 22, 2011.

Records and Normals for Amarillo

Most ( but not all) of those pan handle extreme winds are from approaching storm fronts whereas the Guadalupe mountain area I mentioned in the past post has days on end during a 4 month span with damaging wind forecasts of 80+ mph winds making it have far MORE extreme windier days than Amarillo and other places in the Southwest.

Difference is there is no population there and hardly anyone drives that highway or even knows where it is so it doesn't get mentioned much in weather forecasts. There is a weather station there and next March look up the forecasts.

National Weather Service

forecast.weather.gov

Back in the early 90's I used to haul many Produce loads from Fleming Foods in Phoenix AZ to Albertson's grocery stores with my 1st stop in Carlsbad NM then to Roswell and finally Clovis NM then back up to either Plainview, Friona, or Cactus Tx to grab a load of meat and go back to Phx and do it all over again.

The route to Carlsbad took me right thru the Guadalupe mountains on US 62/180 and I encountered many times those extreme gusty winds which scared the hell out of me on occasions.
I was always loaded heavy usually just under 80,000 lbs which can survive being picked up by those winds but not so much by being blown around so hard that the momentum can cause a loss of control.

High winds like that are no joke!

 

[Cookie55]

I can’t imagine the pain of seeing that happen. I’ve had a few wire antennas get taken down because of ice but that’s nothing compared to your loss!

 

[nomadradio]

Pretty sure this was either caused or aggravated by an ice storm. About ten years before the pic was snapped. Looked like this for quite a while before they got around to dismantling it.

73

 

[GlocknSpiel]

My Comet, after a t-storm microburst in 2011. A pine tree limb broke off a nearby tree and caught one of the guy sets on the way down.
They were awesome little beams. But we're in the same camp...... I can't have anything nice either;


One of three such "endings" of Imax2000's I've lost. Lightning loves those fiberglass antennas;


This was the latest antenna (5BTV) lost to Hurricane Irma, 2017..... Are we having fun yet?

I lost one more beam and tower, but can't seem to locate the pics I took of it. Oh well --- kinda redundant at this point anyway.

 

[TimmyTheTorch]

My Comet, after a t-storm microburst in 2011. A pine tree limb broke off a nearby tree and caught one of the guy sets on the way down.
They were awesome little beams. But we're in the same camp...... I can't have anything nice either;

I think Mother Nature is trying to tell you something.

 

[Woody-202]

I guess my hurricane damage wasn't that bad in comparison to your damage.

 

[GlocknSpiel]

I guess my hurricane damage wasn't that bad in comparison to your damage.

It's just the location. We have numerous very drastic weather events here, especially in the Summer months. I'm currently down to a ground-mount Hustler 5BTV vertical at the moment, and am too old (at least, by myself) to get anything higher back up.