A REAL big wind

OK, I am officially revising my opinion of what passed through our neighborhood last night from straight-line winds to small tornado. There was a line of damage in our neighborhood running from the house of my Dean and one of my colleagues on faculty (all of their families are OK, but my Dean had a tree fall on his house -- minor damage) going generally northeast towards and through Carle Park. My Dean also pointed out that the trees that fell over in his yard and the one that fell over in our colleague's next door to him fell in different directions, which you wouldn't expect from straight-line winds. Further documentary evidence behind the cut.



So, all of the photos below were taken within a two block radius of our house. The first two are just down the street from us on Iowa, and are basically across the street from each other. The first shows a pine tree on someone's roof, and the other is a downed half-tree in someone's yard. (apologies for the image quality -- the Treo is not so good a camera).






It's possible those were just wind. But the next bunch I'm thinking not. Starting with the front yard of my colleague:




Then a little east to their neighbor. If you were wondering what a tree snapped off at its base looks like, now you know:




Now a bit northeast to the south side of Carle Park. You have to look close, but you can see the tree debris on the ground and the awkward angle of one of the trees still up:






And now to the northeast corner of Carle Park. This one had been pretty much cleaned up by the time I got there, so all that's left is the part of the tree that didn't fall down:




So, a path of tree destruction on a southwest to northeast line, passing within a block of our house. I'm thinking we were lucky to only lose a chimney cap.