"High winds" damage at least 14 trees at Point Defiance Park, Washington

I saw this article on Twitter this morning from the Washington State DOT and they said they were looking into what could have caused these big old trees to fall over. The article now makes the assumption that it could have been a storm or even a tornado.. Seems unlikely for the area (being a tornado that is), just wondering if anyone on here is in the area and if they saw anything last night? I live south of Olympia and the weather was pretty calm down there. I know Point Defiance is a bit north, but I still think its odd. Anyways, heres the link..

Read more here: www.thenewstribune.com.../99/296/#storylink=cpy

a reply to: deanyo

Last night was a bit strange weather-wise. It rained very heavily until about 7:30 or so and then cleared up beautifully with a nice double rainbow. Winds aloft were very high as you could see by the clouds moving. It darkened up a bit by 9:00 and was very windy. I'm about as far north of Pt. Defiance as you are south. It was pretty volatile. I'm not surprised. There could easily have been local variation in areas like that. It was enough to freak out a trained owl, who took off and is missing. I'm guessing he will be back when it's meal time. Pt. Defiance lost a bear who escaped a few years ago. They all freaked out, closed the park, etc. By evening the bear was back at his cage wondering where dinner was.

Add: I guess the storm hit about 7:00 pm, which is when I experienced the heavy weather here. If you look at the vid many of those trees uprooted. Evergreens have very shallow root balls and absent a bunch of surrounding trees for protection will easily fall. This was near the entrance to the park, which is "sculpted" and landscaped. The interior of the park around Five Mile Drive is forested more naturally and likely did not suffer the same sort of damage.

a reply to: deanyo

Hey there fellow Washingtonian. I live in Bonney Lake - roughly 20 miles from Point Defiance (which is in the Tacoma area for anyone not familiar). I am in the "foothills" of Mt Rainier, and from where I am we can look downhill (toward the east-northeast) and see Tacoma. Really beautiful at night.

Anyhoo - I know that at my house last night the wind was pretty strong with a lot of very strong "bursts" really rattling the chimes and knocking stuff over in my yard, so I would imagine that Point Defiance Park, being right on the water (Puget Sound for those unfamiliar), would have much stronger winds since that area doesn't have much to "block" the wind.

I would have guessed that the super saturated soil in Western Washington causing all the landslides lately (like the tragic Oso landslide) would be partly to blame, but the picture in the link looks like the tree was snapped in half! Still, it's not really that uncommon to have mini tornados in the area. We do get 1 or 2 small ones a year like this one last September: blogs.seattletimes.com...

originally posted by: tallcool1
a reply to: deanyo

Hey there fellow Washingtonian.

I live in Bonney Lake -

Bonney Lake? My kids live up there on Lake Tapps. I love the "volcano evacuation route" signs which lead you toward the mountain! When the mountain is out up there it really is stunningly beautiful.

a reply to: schuyler

Schuyler - I didn't know you were a fellow Washingtonian! Nice to know that I'm in good company. So if you're at about the same distance in the opposite direction, are you roughly Queen Anne or Capitol Hill area-ish, or perhaps on the Eastside? Got a sister-in-law in that area of Seattle - but it's just too..."city" for me. I like being more suburban myself.

Edited to add: Just saw the "Island" for your location - so I guess you're not in Seattle after all. Mercer?

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: tallcool1
a reply to: deanyo

Hey there fellow Washingtonian.

I live in Bonney Lake -

Bonney Lake? My kids live up there on Lake Tapps. I love the "volcano evacuation route" signs which lead you toward the mountain! When the mountain is out up there it really is stunningly beautiful.

My grandparents were one of the first people to build on Lake Tapps - Tacoma Point area! Plus my dad and my uncle are neighbors with each other on Lake Tapps - kinda by the Snag Island and Tapps Island area! Dad lives about a 5 minute drive from me...frikken LOVED growing up on that lake. From way back when we used to camp there on my uncles property (before there were wall to wall houses on the lake) to nowadays when I can go to dad's anytime for a relaxing day on the lake (and every 4th of July!).

Unfortunately for me, I'm not really at the right income level to afford a place of my own on the lake - but I still have access. Still... the mountain from my front yard is absolutely spectacular!