Eifgental der Ahnungslosen

[oloriel]

We had a thunderstorm on Monday.

That is, down where I live, it was a thunderstorm. Your usual heat thunderstorm, unsurprising after three days of hot and humid weather, if perhaps a bit on the heavy side. Knocked down a lot of unripe walnuts from our trees, so I had a perfect excuse to start making black walnuts the next day.

Also the next day, I read in the paper that it was actually a hurricane that uprooted thousands of trees, paralysed the railway network and part of the road network, uncovered roofs, smashed windows and killed six people. In many places, they're still trying to get the roads free again. In Düsseldorf, they actually had to call upon the army in order to get the place cleaned up. (Not because of riots or anything, but because they need tanks in order to get through all the fallen trees. Also because the volunteer helpers are probably getting a bit tired after three days of more or less incessant work.) O.ó

Not complaining that we don't have that kind of damage around here. Even the trees we've been eyeing with a lot of distrust (back in the 1930s, some people thought that planting some singular spruces here was a good idea; now we have gigantic spruces with flat roots in the rocky soil, so every larger storm has us worried that some of the spruces are going to a) splinter or b) fall over entirely. But because this is now a nature reserve, we can't take them down preemptively. Our neighbours could - they're just outside the reserve - and I really don't know why they don't, because some their trees actually have lost their tops in past winters. How many warnings do you need? But I digress.) remained standing. So, yay.

But it's sort of scary that I completely misjudged that storm. I mean, if someone had asked about the weather, I'd just said "Duh, normal heat storm, no problem."

- - -

We may not have many (ripe) walnuts this year, but maybe we'll get luckier with some other fruit. It seems to have been a good year for fruit so far - even the pear tree, which has never as yet born fruit in the seven years that we've been living here, is currently hanging full of tiny hard pears. And the wild plum trees that only give us plums if we're especially lucky (happened once, so far) also have plums in them at the moment. Well, we'll see if any of them ripen! But at least the potential's there...

Comments

[hhimring]

Something like that happened to me, too, a few months ago.
It wasn't as bad a storm as yours, but we'd been warned well in advance. So I was still waiting for it to arrive, when I was told that it had already been and gone--we'd only caught the edge of it, but it had done quite a lot of damage elsewhere!

I'm glad you escaped, except for the walnuts!

[elfy.livejournal.com]

what are "black walnuts"?

[independence1776]

Wow! I'm glad you escaped the worst of the damage. (Though I had to look up why you called it a hurricane; I've never heard stronger storms that aren't tropical in origin called one before.)

[faelkchen.livejournal.com]

Es sieht wirklich richtig übel aus hier. Ein Jammer um all die schönen, alten Bäume. Ich muss auch immer noch zu Fuß zur Agentur laufen, weil ein Teil der Bahnen nicht oder nur eingeschränkt fahren.
Ich hab den Sturm auch unterschätzt, es wurde zwar wirklich richtig stockdunkel, aber von meinem Fenster konnte ich nicht sehen, wie viel Schaden er angerichtet hat. Das hab ich erst am nächsten Morgen gesehen, als überall Scherben und Bäume herumlagen.
Hätte ich einen Zug später zurück nach Düsseldorf genommen, wäre ich obendrein auch noch mitten ins Unwetter geraten. Glück gehabt...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Walnüsse, die man pflückt (oder nach einem Sturm einsammelt ;)), bevor sie eine harte "Innenschale" gebildet haben. Die werden dann zwei Wochen in kaltem Wasser eingelegt, bis sie durchoxidiert (=schwarz) sind, und dann in Sirup eingekocht und ein halbes Jahr ziehen gelassen. Schmecken dann gut zu Joghurt oder Eis (angeblich auch zu Wild, aber das hab ich noch nicht ausprobiert) - jedenfalls, wenn man den Duft von Walnusslaub mag, so schmecken sie nämlich letztlich auch. :)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have called it that, either, but our newspapers do! (Well, they use the German word, Orkan, but you know. Same difference.)
Definitely glad we escaped the damage, too!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Wow, echt Glück gehabt. Von zuhause aus lässt sich so etwas eindeutig besser "abwettern"... (Es sei denn, man flüchtet sich in eine Gartenlaube. ;_;)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes you just have to be lucky!
Even the walnuts are a blessing -- I wouldn't have reached them to make black walnuts (and I love those, even though they're a lot of work), but now that they've fallen anyway, I may as well use them up, right? :D

[faelkchen.livejournal.com]

Ja, das ist wirklich schlimm, sie dachten, sie sind in Sicherheit und dann kracht ein Baum auf die Laube... Ich wär da echt nicht gern noch unterwegs gewesen, Wahnsinn, was alles durch die Gegend geflogen ist und Blitze ohne Unterlass.
Man hört auch jetzt noch alle paar Minuten das Martinshorn in der Stadt.

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard about the troubles in Germany - so sorry to hear sad news. :(

[independence1776]

What would you have used, then?

It also cleared up a lingering question for me from the first chapter of Half-Blood Prince: "Or that the government could somehow have foreseen the freak hurricane in the West Country that had caused so much damage to both people and property?" I've never been able to reconcile hurricane with Great Britain, so I thought that it was the wrong word (instead of tornado) and no one caught it. Now I know it's a European term.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Well, I would just have called it a Hitzegewitter (heat-caused thunderstorm) because I wouldn't have realised its full force without the newspapers! Or if I'd known about its force and the damage, I might have gone for summer storm. I'm not a meteorologist, so I know nothing about correct terms!

Tornado would definitely be something else for me, though (something involving cyclons) - definitely not your "ordinary" European major storm thingy. ^^

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ja, aus Düsseldorf lese ich wirklich wüste Dinge. Inlusive Räumpanzer. O.ó Unglaublich, dass hier quasi gar nichts passiert ist und nur 50 km weiter SO WAS!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's quite shocking. Some of the victims were apparently having a garden party, and when the storm started, went into a garden pavillion to wait it out. Then, a tree crashed into the pavillion. :(

[independence1776]

I'm not a meterologist, either, but in American English, hurricane's used only for the tropical systems. I think I'd call your massive storm something like a severe thunderstorm/windstorm, but that seems to be downplaying its severity.

Yeah, tornado didn't seem quite right either, but I had no idea what was really meant, and it was my best guess.