Oklahoma ice storm

[Sooner or later]

Basically, much of the western half of the state were iced over the last two days. Pics from the OKC metro area. Temps were in the 60s prior to and forecast near 60 degrees on Halloween.

[flatbutt]

Looks like North Jersey! Yikes.

[onewhippedpuppy]

We had about 1/4” of ice with 2” of snow on top. Tuesday driving was a $h!tshow.

[LWJ]

Yikes. We get these in Oregon. Deadly. Trees don’t like it either.

[red-beard]

Yep. Ice storms are bad.

Snow storms with the leaves on the trees are really bad.

Ice storms with the leaves still on the trees are really really bad.

[ZOO]

The one that hit much of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec in 1998 was the biggest natural disaster I’ve lived through. Learned a lot about what people who face hurricanes endure more regularly.

I hope you have a good chainsaw.

[KFC911]

It's been about ten years since our last big ice storms (two years back-to-back) took out most of the vulnerable trees. We're due...

That's why my chainsaws are always ready.... 2-cycle fwiw... leave the battery powered "toys" inside .

[billybek]

With the size of those trees, your gonna need a bigger saw...

OTOH, if you burn wood for heat, your cost to heat your home next year just decreased.

[slow&rusty]

Wow.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by billybek

With the size of those trees, your gonna need a bigger saw...

OTOH, if you burn wood for heat, your cost to heat your home next year just decreased.

Those are good size trees .... but not bigly trees

Some will surely fall here today .... 50 mph winds.... starting just about now. At least it's 70 degrees outside.

Stay safe....

[GH85Carrera]

The real problem with the ice storm so early in the year was the leaves had not yet turned colors much less turned loose. The trees were and are covered in leaves. All that extra surface to add weight.


This is the view out of my home office window. The pear tree is a gonner, and we will "get" to have it removed, and the stump ground out so we can plant a new tree. I used to throw the hose over that tree when I was watering back before I put in the sprinkler system.



This is the Chinese Pistache Tree in the front yard is supposed to be "Ice hardy" and it fared better, and at times had the limbs bent to the ground. It did have some damage but hopefully we can salvage it.



It is a real mess. The good news is we have not lost power for more than 20 seconds. No damage to the house, and they are just trees that will grow back, or be replaced.

[Gooch1971]

Glen and I live about 15 miles apart. I feel very lucky to have family close that didn't lose power. Our power was out for 51 hours starting Monday. In nearly 25 years, our power had never been off more than a few hours before this. Our neighborhood has buried lines but the outage was further down the system.

[GH85Carrera]

Phew, my wife and I just spent 3.5 hours playing logger apprentice. I am 100% sure I will not become a logger or get into tree removal and cleanup. One of the two back yard neighbors has (had) a lace bark elm tree they was just destroyed. It was covered in leaves and FULL of seeds. Just dragging a 1/2 inch diameter limb full of leaves and seeds was astonishingly heavy. It just crushed our Japanese maple when it fell on it. We have a long 3 day weekend of nice weather and tree debris cleanup.

[javadog]

The last big ice storm we had 10 or 12 years ago, one of my Japanese maples got flattened. When I say flattened, there was nothing that stuck up more than 12 inches off of the ground. It recovered completely and still lives to this day.

I had a big limb on one of my cherry laurels break and I raised it back up straight with a rope, put a splint on it and wrapped it in duck tape and it’s also still just fine.

You never know, I wouldn’t be cutting anything down yet.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Phew, my wife and I just spent 3.5 hours playing logger apprentice. I am 100% sure I will not become a logger or get into tree removal and cleanup. One of the two back yard neighbors has (had) a lace bark elm tree they was just destroyed. It was covered in leaves and FULL of seeds. Just dragging a 1/2 inch diameter limb full of leaves and seeds was astonishingly heavy. It just crushed our Japanese maple when it fell on it. We have a long 3 day weekend of nice weather and tree debris cleanup.

Sorry to hear. I dodged the bullet. Mostly rain and sleet. Still enough freezing rain to bring down a bunch of limbs but few trees. One degree colder and it would have been a similar disaster in Lawton.

[Seahawk]

Wow, folks - and since I have met Glen and his wife: WOW, Glen.

No advice other than be careful.

Ice storms are, as many of the pictures here illustrate, the beauty and the beast.

[Mad Max]

When I lived in Tulsa from 1988-94, I experienced ice and tornado storms in those six years. Crazy weather from that region.

[GH85Carrera]

The ice is gone baby gone. It is 55 degrees today, 60s tomorrow and the weekend and 70s possible next week. Just lots of chain saws in the background. We are luck in there was zero home damage, we lost power for 20 seconds only, and we could come and go as needed.

Many people have trees on roofs, or blocking roads and driveways. The tree trimmers are hopefully taking care of them first, and they can get here when more convenient. We have one large Bradford Pear tree that has to be cut down and the stump ground out. We will plant something else there.

[bkreigsr]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Looks like South Jersey! Yikes.

Amen brother:

[Gooch1971]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Phew, my wife and I just spent 3.5 hours playing logger apprentice. I am 100% sure I will not become a logger or get into tree removal and cleanup. One of the two back yard neighbors has (had) a lace bark elm tree they was just destroyed. It was covered in leaves and FULL of seeds. Just dragging a 1/2 inch diameter limb full of leaves and seeds was astonishingly heavy. It just crushed our Japanese maple when it fell on it. We have a long 3 day weekend of nice weather and tree debris cleanup.

Same here. Janie, Michael and I spent a good amount of Friday cleaning up our yard and helped a couple neighbors. Closed out the night working the high school football game concession stand in shorts. Feeling pretty sore but lucky not to have any serious damage.