Big Wind Narrowly Misses Dowbrigade

One
of our favorite theories of the inevitability of Blogging holds that
eventually, whenever something noteworthy or memorable happens in the
world there will be a blogger nearby to witness and record. Well, Saturday
it was our turn, and although it’s not the kind of news we find at all
compelling, there was a CBS satelite uplink broadcasting van parked
in front of our house for most of the day yesterday, so we feel obligated
to at least mention the incident.

On Saturday afternoon, at about 4:30 in the afternoon,
on the leading edge of a cold front sweeping across the region from West
to East, our neighborhood in Watertown, MA was hit by intense, high winds
of short duration. Judging from our days as a Navy meteorologist
at McMurdo Station near the South Pole, we would estimate the gusts
at upward of 65 mph. The wind tore up trees, blocked the streets, damaged
homes,
and
tore
half the roof off of the cupola of St. Stephens, an Armenian Church on
the corner, which is why the network trucks showed up. Fortunately, no
one was hurt.

story and photo by Dowbrigade.