Condition Monitoring Star of the Week, Feb 16th - 22nd, Craven County, NC

The Condition Monitoring Star of the Week was submitted on February 22nd by observer with station number NC-CN-31 in Craven County, NC.  We chose this report because of the variety of information it offers, especially that regarding impacts to people.  This type of information is not usually featured in observers' reports but equally important.  Can you think of ways weather affects people in your area?  Think about how businesses, roadways and transportation, tourism, electricity are affected by weather or how your neighbors respond to weather impacts. Opportunities abound! Thank you NC-CN-31 for offering us some great ideas on how to enhance condition monitoring reports by including impacts to people! Keep up the good work!


 Categories

Agriculture
Business and Industry
Energy
Plants and Wildlife
Society and Public Health
Tourism and Recreation

UGH ! What a Week! We got hit on Monday night with several hours overnight of freezing rain. This caused SO much tree damage that it was equal to the damage caused by Hurricane Irene some years ago. Especially the evergreen trees suffered. EVERYTHING was encrusted in a layer of ice that was just about 1/2 inch thick. The branches broke, falling onto other branches that were barely capable of holding their own weight. That was (is) our property. The area full of pine tree farms suffered too. Electricity was knocked out. We were out for about 12 hours (thank goodness for a generator and enough propane to run it). The electricity was restored overnight on Tuesday, and was out again on Wednesday, probably while more lasting repairs were made. Not all in the area were out - just us few "lucky" ones. (ha) Ice on the grass was like little knife blades - dog did NOT want to go out. Driveways were worse than roadways as the day progressed. Friends came to get water so that they could provide water to their kenneled hunting dogs - theirs had frozen solid. And so the week was... temperatures just making "melt the ice a bit" so that it could refreeze in sheets. NOT a fun week. Schools on delays - and closings; businesses closed. BUT.. then, we did not have what the Northeast had; nor did we HAVE to travel anywhere during these periods - so we were much more fortunate than many were last week We did feed our honeybees - although they seem not to have been feeding on our offerings - having been bringing in pollen (and nectar?) and using up their honey stores. They DO get out when those temps are above 50 and anything (like dandelions) are blooming.