Storm Isha is raging!

 

Met Eireann has just upgraded our storm warning for wind to red from the previous orange. The wind started in the wee hours of the morning and, with a brief break, has been going ever since. We've had gusts of 71.8 knots (133 kph, 83 mph) so far. That's category 1 hurricane strength. 

Alex woke up at 2 am to a crash of lightning and thunder which tripped our circuit breakers. It must have hit very close by. He said the hail was so big and pounding so hard on the windows that he was afraid it was going to break them.

I slept through it all as I had hardly slept at all the previous night in a hotel in Dublin. When I fell asleep I had vivid nightmares followed by leg cramps, followed by dreams of flying high over our land in an attempt to avoid arrest by Nazis and intrusion by vigilantes. I haven't had flying dreams in many years. I wonder what this means? I loved seeing the woods we planted and the vineyard and shed from overhead. The feeling of freedom was almost overwhelming.

Storm Isha is supposed to continue through tomorrow morning. I'm concerned about damage in the vineyard but I am glad we had started pruning and I had cut off most of the long unsecured branches. We won't know the result until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

4 pm update

We are now experiencing gusts of 150 km/h. It's quite scary. They say the worst will come after 5 pm and that it could go to 170 km/h. That's Cat2 hurricane strength. 

MSC WindGuru weather station anemometer