Margery Niblock

April Showers

A Hurricane in April!

Maine was devastated  by a huge, hard-hitting storm on April 16. Its coming attractions had been billed as a Nor'easter, but when you have hurricane-force winds lasting for sixteen hours, I'd say it was a hurricane. Perhaps we should call it an "eyeless" hurricane, since the storm didn't have an eye. Many homes sustained great damage, particularly those next to beach areas. Some were toppled and taken off their foundations, being reclaimed by the ocean. There are times when having ocean-front property is not an asset, and this was one of them.

Not since the ice storm of 1998 was this much destruction accomplished in Maine by Mother Nature. Trees were hit hard; here are a few of the losses suffered in that area. The streetlight was bent in half, but managed to remain lit, which gave it a very eerie feeling.

Street signs also took a big hit from the storm.

Brunswick, Maine

My friend Erica Guinan took these photos of the area where she lives in Brunswick. It was the same all over the state. Just horrible conditions.

Roof Peels Off Police Headquarters

The roof of Police Headquarters in Portland was severely damaged during the storm. It is one sheet of rubber with seams, and was glued to the surface at the top of the building. High winds peeled the rubber off the steel bedding, creating tears, and causing it to flap in a menacing manner.

Nothing could be done at the time because of the wind's severity. Water poured into half of the fourth-floor ceiling. Luckily, many detectives were working that day, and everyone scrambled to remove computers and all other valuable items. People were sent home after this was accomplished.

Headquarters was built in the mid-1970s and its roof is approximately 7,000 square feet. It was thought that the entire roof might come off, and it was monitored throughout the night, while an alert city crew watched and waited. On Friday, April 20, a giant crane arrived to begin repairs.

Insulation needed to be placed underneath the rubber roof, and this was brought up in huge packages by the crane.

You need to have a lot of trust to stand under that load!

Damage to Trail

The Eastern Promenade Trail also sustained a lot of damage in portions that were right next to the water. This had been a week of extremely high and low seasonal tides, which made the force of the larger waves even more deadly.

Conifers Take Big Hit

Many of Portland's giant old trees were felled, and it seems as though pine trees were particularly hard hit by the wind.

This is an old synagogue; its front yard had an unusually large collection of tall trees that were knocked down by the wind. Luckily, none of them hit the building.

This storm will be remembered!

Neighborhood Sights

Street Freebies Abound

If you want to add some warmth to your home, this would be the item to do it.

If you need a place to rest your rear end, you could try one of these. And you have a choice of color also.

Need Any Shoes?

As you can see, there was quite a selection of footwear in this very narrow alley. Mmm. It does make you wonder . . . .

Danger from Nuts—the Edible Type

This is a sign that's on the staircase leading to a day care center. It doesn't seem like that long ago when USAir handed out bags of peanuts on every flight. That would be a definite no-no these days.

Peanut allergies are a serious problem for many people. Peanuts that are associated with major food allergies aren't nuts, they're legumes, so being allergic to peanuts doesn't necessarily mean an allergy to nuts, although many people are also allergic to nuts. The problem is caused by the immune system identifying peanuts as a harmful agent, which triggers an allergic reaction that may be as mild as a rash or as severe as anaphylactic shock.

In order to be able to correctly identify ingredients in packaged food, a new labeling law went into effect, titled the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Law of 2004. As you might imagine, it's crucial for people having life-threatening allergies to be able to know the ingredients that are associated with major food allergies and to be able to see those listed in the contents of packaged foods.

Psychic Love

 

This is a relatively new addition to Portland's funky landscape. I haven't gone in there yet, so I can't report on what goes on behind those curtains. I'm sure that it's interesting.

The next time I want to have tarot cards read or have my horoscope told, I'll be certain to let you know. But you might want to come to Portland and try this for yourself. If you do, please let me know. I'm certain you'd have a delightful time while you're here. And you might let me know what "psychic love" is also.

More April Snow!

Portland received several more inches of snow on April 13, just a little over a week after the previous foot had fallen. It was winter once again.

This is my little friend Tim, who lives around the corner. He's checking out the snow-covered lobster buoys hanging on the back fence while his daddy clears snow from the driveway. When you purchase a home with an existing chain-link fence, my philosophy is to cover it up. So I hung fishing nets and lobster paraphernalia on it. It works! And it makes more sense than tearing down a very sturdy fence because it's ugly. I don't like ugly!

Whenever I see Tim, I use my loud New York voice, and shout TIMMY! He gets a big charge out of that and always responds with a mega-smile.

Outside

                    Hello Birdie!

It's more difficult during the winter to find fascinating things outside that are worthy of photographing. But the sweet bird that someone hung on this tree during the Christmas season falls into the "worthy" category.

It had gotten twisted on the tree and I unhooked it from the small node the string had wrapped itself around. But I couldn't get a good picture of it then because it was so windy that it just kept twirling around and around.

I hope you'll forgive me.

                       Bow Wow . . .

This little guy didn't say "bow wow," and that's because he's a statue. What a delight, to discover the dog while walking to the drugstore.

I don't know what he's thinking, but it appears as though he may be trying to get out. He can't, because he's made of concrete. He really blended in with the fence and the snow, and I was pleased to have noticed him. I think he's actually quite happy in that location and he merely wanted to say hello to me. I'll stop by and visit him again, now that I know where he lives.

                                 On Assignment

On January 20, I attended the second annual Portland Police Department Recognition Ceremony, covering the event for The West End News.

I thought this was a very sweet image, which happened to be on the table where I was seated; an unlikely combination that was nice to see.

This is the hat of Officer Dan Knight, who received a Distinguished Unit Commendation for his work in the Day Directed Patrol Unit led by Lt. William Preis. This award is presented to a team or unit for "an outstanding accomplishment which is the result of the collective performance of its members. Congratulations!

Breakfast was served at this event, and each place setting had one of these cookies, created by Veronica's Treats. 

 I haven't wanted to destroy mine yet, so it's standing up in the kitchen. 

                                    

                   

                

                                 

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                                                     In Memoriam

                                                    RUSS TAYLOR

                                   November 17, 1930 — December 25, 2006

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When I left Philadelphia in May of 1989, Russ gave me this glass heart. He said "Here's my heart; take good care of it."

I've done as he asked. It's just one of many things that remind me of him almost everywhere I look in my home.

I was sorry to leave, but I would have been much sorrier had I remained in that city. I know I made the right choice moving to Portland.

 

This is my homage to Russ, hanging in my kitchen, where I spend most of my time.

You'll never be forgotten—or unloved. And I'll see you in all the rainbows that come through the prism hanging in my front window; you'll be in every rainbow I view anywhere.

And thank you, Donna, for all your kindness and consideration. I hope I'll be able to meet you someday. You're a very special person. We seem to be forging a long-distance friendship based on our shared grief.

                

Rest in peace, Russ.         

Weather—Whether We Like It or Not

I've always been attuned to the weather. As a young child, on rainy days I'd look through two large art books belonging to my parents. One was filled with black and white prints, titled A Treasury of American Prints (1939), and the other had beautiful glossy color reproductions of paintings. That was called Modern American Paintings (1940).

The book with the paintings had two by John Steuart Curry depicting approaching storms, and I would study these for a long time, being awed and frightened by them.

This is a lithograph of The Line Storm by Curry. It's at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas. The oil painting is the same subject, but in color.

[Collection of Steven Schmidt]

I would imagine myself in that scene, trying to outrace those awful clouds that would soon turn the entire sky black. And the lightning! Scary! I'd imagine the sound of the thunder. Even worse with the sound! Oh, I was glad I was in my sturdy six-story brick building.

Another painting of Curry's that horrified me was Tornado over Kansas (View this photo). As I studied it in our third-floor apartment in the Bronx, I would imagine that I was with this family, about to descend into their cellar to escape the horrific funnel cloud of the approaching tornado. The fact that children were in this painting made it even more powerful and meaningful to me. Had I not been born in New York City, I could have been one of those fearful Kansas children being led belowground to escape the ravages of nature's force. For me, staring at that painting was like going to a horror movie. It was wonderful!

Wacky Weather

A few years ago I was asked to write a book. It was to be nonfiction, for fourth graders, and I was given the title, which was Wacky Weather. How exciting! I was thrilled to do this job, and pleased about the title, something I could really dig into.

That's a pretty scary cover, to me. I had to write up all of the art "specs" for the book, which were to be photographs. I wrote a description of what I wanted for the cover, and I couldn't have chosen a better picture. I was thrilled when I saw it; it gave me those old goosebumps of my childhood.

The first thing I had to do was to decide what constituted "wacky" weather. I knew there had been something called "the year without a summer." That would be a good topic. I'd also heard about frogs falling from the sky in rainstorms. That sounded like it would be fun to research. Hail is created during severe thunderstorms; another interesting aspect of those dreaded events. Mount Washington, which I can view on clear days from several locations in the neighborhood, also was a good candidate for the title. I'd read that mountain climbers preparing themselves for the hardships of the Himalayas would practice on Mount Washington, noted for its severe weather. And so I began my research on these topics.

Eruption of Tambora

On April 15, 1815, on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, the stratovolcano Tambora erupted. The giant cloud of volcanic dust formed after the eruption blocked so much sunlight that in many places temperatures dropped more than 30 degrees F. The cooling effect started in the northern United States about eleven months after the volcano's huge eruption.

The Year Without a Summer

The year 1816 became known as "the year without a summer." The effects were felt in much of Europe and the northern part of the United States. There was snow and frost in New England in June, July, and August. Crops were destroyed, causing food shortages for people and farm animals.

The dust in the sky caused brilliant red and purple sunsets, and many people believe that the skies in many of the landscapes of the English painter J. M. W. Turner were inspired by these fantastic sunsets.

In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines, causing magnificent sunsets for several years following this terrible disaster. It doesn't seem right that beauty should result from such cataclysmic events. Pinatubo also had effects on worldwide weather.

Popocatépetl, near Mexico City, remains a major threat as far as erupting. The last big eruption was in 2000. "Popo" has lots of activity on a daily basis, which is captured with a Web cam and detailed by CENAPRED, Mexico's National Center for Prevention of Disasters.

Waterspouts

[Dr. Joseph Golden, NOAA]

Waterspouts are tornadoes formed over water. They may reach speeds of about eighty miles per hour and can have winds spinning inside the funnel at more than sixty miles per hour.

A waterspout may suck up water, along with any animals in that water, and draw them into its vortex. It can carry this water for miles, which will then fall back to the ground in the form of heavy rain. If frogs and fish have been sucked up into the vortex, they will then be propelled downward with the rain. So if some frogs or fish fall on your umbrella you'll know that they've been carried to your location by a waterspout.

Hail

[NOAA]

This is the largest hailstone, which was found in Aurora, Nebraska, after a storm on June 27, 2003. It broke the record of the one I'd written about in my book, which had landed in Coffeyville, Kansas, on September 3, 1970. The Kansas hailstone had a circumference of seventeen and a half inches. The one above is seven inches in diameter with a circumference of eighteen and three-quarter inches.

One of the delights of researching this little book was a Kansas newspaper article from 1896 discussing a wagonload of hail that had been gathered after a violent storm. The people in the town then turned those hailstones into ice cream!

Hail Alley

No doubt you've heard of Tornado Alley. The area of high plains east of the Rocky Mountains has been dubbed Hail Alley. And Cheyenne, Wyoming, has more hailstorms (nine to ten per season) than any other locale in the United States. Calgary, Canada, also has severe hailstorms, and the resultant damage to buildings and vehicles runs into hundreds of millions of dollars from some of these storms. A hailstorm in 1991 caused more than $350 million in damages.

Meteorologists classify hailstones by sizes comparable to everyday items: pea; marble; penny; quarter; half dollar; walnut; golf ball; hen egg; tennis ball; baseball; teacup; grapefruit; softball. Yikes! That's big enough. Can you imagine a storm with hail as large as tennis balls? Forget those softballs. That's nightmare material.

The formation of hail comes about in severe thunderstorms, in strong upward movements of air called updrafts. They start out as drops of water that are carried high into the atmosphere. When the droplets reach heights where the temperatures are below freezing, they become solid pieces of ice. These small pieces of ice begin falling, and are then tossed up again by the updrafts. As this process repeats, they become enlarged. When they're heavy enough to overcome the force of the updrafts, they come down to the ground as hail.

Mount Washington

The TV tower at the summit of Mount Washington was built to withstand winds of 300 miles an hour! This was a good idea, since the highest wind speed that wasn't storm related was clocked up there at 231 miles per hour. That was in April 1934. And I hope you paid attention to those words wasn't storm related.

Mount Washington may be the windiest place in the world. It has hurricane-force winds about a hundred days a year, and wind speeds are measured at over a hundred miles during each month of the year. I prefer viewing its majestic beauty from the park a couple of blocks from my home.

We had a bit of snow in Maine on December 4, which had all melted by late morning. Evidently Mount Washington received more than the dusting that we experienced. And its snow may not melt until late spring. I took this picture from a little park near my home. The mountain is a hundred miles away. It can only be seen on clear days, and when it has a mantle of snow covering it, it appears to be closer. Those are my favorite views of Mount Washington, covered with snow.

The Mount Washington Observatory transmits valuable weather data to the National Weather Service several times each day. Some of the worst weather in the world is on Mount Washington's peak. It's only 6,288 feet high, but its location at the meeting place of three major storm tracks causes its odd weather patterns. The severe conditions atop this mountain, which is part of New Hampshire's White Mountains, consist of extreme cold, ice, and roaring winds.

[mountwashington.com]

Everything gets covered with thick rime ice during the winter, caused by the combination of fog and wind. There's a wonderful panoramic view from a camera at the top of the mountain. Here's the Observatory tower covered with rime.

[Michael Davidson]

Hurricanes

It seems like every day since Hurricane Katrina, there's an article in the news pertaining to that horrific event. It wasn't the first time that a major U.S. city was decimated by a hurricane. One century earlier, in September 1900, Galveston, Texas, was destroyed by a hurricane. The book Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson, is a gripping story of that city's demise. I would think there will be many books and movies that will document Katrina.

Hurricanes are storms occurring in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific Ocean. To be classified as a hurricane, wind speeds must reach at least seventy-four miles per hour. If this type of storm happens in the Philippines or the China Sea, it is a typhoon. Over the Indian Ocean and around Australia it would be referred to as a cyclone. Whatever its name, it's time to take cover.

Weather Forecasting

When I was a teenager in New York City, during the early days of television, Tex Antoine was the favorite weatherman. He had a great personality and turned the weather report into a veritable comedy routine. He had a large sketchpad, on which he drew various cartoons and large numbers. Watching his weather report was like a mini show.

These days weather is very serious business. Many people are tuned in to a weather channel all the time. We have meteorologists, scientists engaged in predicting weather, based on satellite images and lots of impressive computer projections. Of course sometimes people wonder whether the folks giving us this information have looked out the window (if they even have one in the studio) at that particular time, because there are many disparities between what is stated and the actuality of the weather.

Bob Tilden wrote a delightful article about those early weather-reporting days with Tex Antoine, and also describes the fear-invoking methods used these days by those who report the weather to us.

Last year I saw this little prediction in my local paper. I think it's a gem.

I was so struck by this that I cut it out and put it into a drawer. I had no idea that I might use it for anything, but it was so bizarre that I wanted to save it. No mention of any afternoon or evening weather for that day, just "blizzard in the morning." The good news was that there was evidently going to be a tomorrow, since Monday's prediction did appear.

This charming weather icon is from today's Portland Press Herald. Today happens to be January 20, 2007. And I live in Maine! Do you see those temperature readings? The high called for is 26 degrees and the low tonight will be 4! That's pretty cold. I challenge you to find a tree looking like those in this drawing that still has leaves on it. I can be very literal at times, and this is definitely one of those times.

Here's my suggestion to the folks at the paper. Shell out a few bucks and have another icon drawn. If you like that one, which is fine for other seasons, then create one with bare branches for the winter. Or—how's this for an idea? If you had a weather icon with evergreen trees—which look the same all year—you'd solve the problem of showing leafy trees in midwinter.

They do need another icon, regardless of which path they choose. Do I expect them to heed my advice? No!

If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. That's what they say in Maine, and probably many other places. I think we all have five minutes to spare. And if we don't, that's too bad, because weather is something we have no control over.