Storm on Coeur d'Alene Lake
June 29, 2007.
We are staying in Coeur
d'Alene at Blackwell
Island RV Resort $30 for paved interior roads, FHU including
cable and wifi. This is a top notch RV park that even allows you to
wash your RV on site. Now that is something you do not see very often.
Joyce booked us on a 2:30 Coeur
d'Alene Lake cruise on the boat Osprey
that docks at the park in downtown Coeur
d'Alene.
Early in our cruise there were omnious warnings in the sky. That
dark sky is our warning of exciting things to come.
The sky looks troubling as we leave the dock on the cruise
boat Osprey
As we pull away from the dock on the cruise
boat Osprey everyone on board has their eyes on an approaching
thunderstorm. The sky looks ominous.
You could "smell" a bad storm in the air.
This is a look at the storm as it approaches us.
It is just a dark cloud in this picture. That will change in seconds.
Things are about to get dicey on Coeur
d'Alene Lake, that is the Coeur
d’Alene Resort in downtown Coeur
d'Alene.
It is 2:30 in the afternoon and that cloud has about blacked out
the sun.
Then the storm hit.
Waves, wind and rain are buffeting the cruise
boat Osprey and Coeur
d'Alene Lake.
It is an odd storm in that there is a down burst of wind. There is
a horiffic wind but the seas are beat down because of the down draft.
It is so hard to fathom the lack of whitecaps and huge waves with
a wind like this.
The captain turned the boat into the wind in an effort keep our vessel
stabilized. He tells everyone not to worry that storms like this occur
over the lake several times a year and that things will be back to
normal in a few minutes.
That is what you expect the captain to say but this wasn't one of
those normal summer thunder storms. This one contained 50 to 60mph
winds.
Of course he is right about the storm not lasting long but for around
5-minutes the wind was 50 to 60 mph with heavy rain, and even a minute
or so of good size hail. It was an exciting few minutes out on Coeur
d'Alene Lake. ------ News reports later said the wind gusts
were were 60 to 70 mph and we saw the devastation wrought throughout
this area of Idaho by this
storm for over a week after this event.
From the protection of the boat we can see where the end of the worst
part of the storm.
Note how the waves now have white caps. The white caps did not appear
until the horiffic down draft passed and we started getting straight
line wind.
The winds in that white out area are really bad. The wind is blowing
so hard there should be whitecaps but it is raining so hard and the
down draft is so strong that the white caps are supressed.
This was during the worst of the storm but even at this time we can
see land.
The strong down draft has the waves and white caps supressed.
As the rain slacks up we start to see white caps again.
The strong down draft has moved on and the waves and white caps are
returning.
At this point the worst has passed and we are now seeing whitecaps.
You can see that the down draft has passed and strong horizontal
winds are not building waves with whitecaps.
By now things are subsiding. The white caps are still there but the
rain is subsiding and no hail is pounding our steel boat.
Conditions on Coeur
d'Alene Lake are improving as the storm moves to the northeast
Days later as we took scenic drives throughout northern Idaho
we could see the damage left behind by this storm. Watch travelogues
for the next few days to see some of the downed trees and washed out
roads.
This is the Osprey,
the boat we were on when the storm provided all the excitement.
This is less than an hour after that memorable storm on Coeur
d'Alene Lake. It is hard to believe how soothing the lake
looks now compared to a bit earlier.
Until next time remember how good life is.
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
Mike
& Joyce Hendrix who we are
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