Crazy Weather at Ocean Falls

January 29th (Wednesday) 

We had quite the unexpected stormy weather all day. We were awakened around 06:30 to the sound of the wind starting to howl. The gusts were clearly building in strength, and the rain was pelting down. We could tell by the feel of the boat that the wind was coming from a different direction, so we got up to look around.  We went out into the cockpit and buttoned everything up as the rain was driving past our enclosure. The wind was coming up the valley from the southwest instead of out the valley from the northeast. It was the first time here that we had had strong winds from a direction other than the northeasterly outflows.  

Back in bed we listened to the length and intensity of the gusts continuing to build. Jason got up again to watch our wind-speed monitor, and right away he was seeing sustained gusts of 47 knots (87 km). He came back to bed, and we listened to the driving rain and the shuddering gusts that were pushing our boat hard against her dock lines. From the sounds of the wind we knew that we gotten gusts above 50 knots, and we were happy to be tied to a secure dock, connected to shore power, with two little electric heaters going to keep our boat warm and comfy. Ah the luxuries!  

Later, when we got up and I went back into our back area, I found all of the drawers to one of our tool chests hanging wide open. Being tied to the dock we had gotten out of the habit of always locking our tool chests, and the wind had moved the boat around enough, heeling us over hard against our lines, that the drawers had slid open.  

The strong wind only lasted for a few hours and then it began to calm off. As I walked through the rain to the post office in the morning, so as to mail a letter with blog stories and pictures to my parents, I was walking through the rain, but only moderate wind. At the post office, as I chatted to Dorothy and we both guessed that the mail plane would not be coming in that day, we suddenly heard a thundering rumble. We went outside, listening, and wondering if it had been thunder or a landslide. The rumble had continued longer than was normal for thunder, so we wondered where the landslide might have been. 

Shortly afterwards, John came into the post office and remarked that there must have been a slide. He said that he had just driven the road from Martin River over to Ocean Falls so he knew that it was still clear. Within seconds the post office room lit up with a blinding flash, then seconds later, thunder, and it must have been directly overhead as the force of the crack and rumble sounded like it may just shake the last remaining buildings of Ocean Falls to the ground.  

I left John and Dorothy at the post office and headed home through the large puddles and pelting hail. I had just enough time to make it home before we saw the second flash of lightning and then the next crack of thunder. By then the storm was distant in the mountains, but we continued to get heavy rain showers that changed back to hail a few more times before the system fully passed us by.  

Early in the afternoon as Jason and I were getting ready to go out for a walk we heard a floatplane; the mail plane had made it in after all. We had a nice walk up to the dam and then on to the lake. It was amazing how much higher the lake was from when everything was frozen and snowy. There was an amazing amount of water pouring over the dam creating a constant roar. Many of the rocks that we had walked on, down along the river, when we went to admire the ice, were now under water with raging foam rushing past.

  

Up at the lake all of the streams flowing into it were running fast. Clearly the amount of water that flowed out over the dam was unable to keep up with all of the water flowing into the lake from the many streams and rivers. 

On our way back home we stopped in at the post office, and we got three pieces of mail. Back at home we enjoyed the excitement of "mail day" as we opened and read our letters.