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Kirjoittajan mukaan: Tarmo Tanilsoo (tarmo.tanilsoo_at_hidden_email_address.net)
Päiväyksen mukaan: 10.01.2005



Hello all!

In the weekend, Estonia and Northern Europe was hit by category 2nd Northern hurricane.

Even near my home area, winds reached 25 m/s. Kärdla, Hiiumaa experienced 41 m/s.

The whole story began on Saturday morning if I noted storm warning for whole Estonia. I started noting down weather data in every 15 minutes at 10:00. There was expected winds up to 32 m/s for coastal areas. I thought that another northern hurricane is hitting us... But after 15:00 I saw news message in Estonian Television's text tv that it is forecasted to be strongest storm in history. Wind picked up quietly... At 16:00, radio news mostly talked about the storm. It was almost news number 1 in the news. Forecast was, that storm begin at 23:00 and maximum is at 4-6 o'clock.

I hoped to go sleep at 20:00 so I can sleep a bit. But I had caught a nasty virus what caused me to puke in every 2 hours and 10 minutes. Virus left me alone after 1:04 at night.

I saw from news, that it will be strongest storm ever in our history. Time went, wind reached Beaufort force 4, force 5... I tried to sleep but no lock. I took my notebook downstairs and started to write, what's going on. After 22:00 I really felt, that it is storm outside. Wind was up to force 6... But the worst part began after 2:00 in coastal areas, 7:00 in Laguja and Tartu, when winds reached force 8. First news after 6:00 in national radio(Radio station I was listening was called Vikerraadio) talked only about the storm. 7:00's also. And so every newscast that day. After 7:45, we started to experience some problems in electricity. At 8:07, power was lost. In some minutes, grandmother lighted the candles(I was at grandparents place as usually in the weekends). It was really windy. I have never seen wind joggling trees like yesterday. Starting at 9:00, for several hours, radio station called to EMHI(Estonian Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) for latest weather data and they include that call in the end of newscast. If it went light, I went upstairs and started noting wind... It looked not to be up to 20 m/s, because strong tree trunks were not shaking(they do it on force 7). Just before power outage at 8:07, cell phones went out. Connection was restored within a hour. It was raining since night. At 8:49 I wrote to my notebook: "Sajab tugevat vihma. Vihmaiilid pühivad üle Laguja. Nagu oleks Ameerikasse sattunud"(It is raining heavy rain. Rainy wind gusts are blowing over Laguja. Looks like I am landed up to America - Estonian language). At 9:27 I had to go outside for a moment (nature called), I was back in 5-10 minutes. But it was windy, raining, big rain pools everywhere. At 10:00, Estonian Radio broadcasted very rare thing in Estonia: In-depth news coverage what lasted for 8 hours. So I spent this day, keeping eye on weather and listening radio. Sometimes, radio stations went silent. Tartu County radio (Known as Tartumaa raadio) was knocked out at least that morning. Air pressure dropped under 970 millibars in Tartu(35 km in Estonia). Maximum wind gust data is different. In Tartu University's weather station, peak gust was 19 m/s. EMHI says that it was even 25 m/s. At the same time, I did not saw the signs, that wind was so strong. Strong tree trunks were still not moving... As the sun set at 15:45 and I was unable to go upstairs to see the temperature, I continued to estimate wind gusts. Radio continued news coverage. I heard from the radio that thousands of power stations are knocked out. I thought that we would not get power back in days. Radio's newscasts were longer than usual. One newscast was even 20 minutes long. Only thing mentioned was the storm... At 17:58, power came back temporarily, but voltage was only 130 volts. We were able to watch TV. Kanal 2 was broadcasting special edition of its news. I found out today, that Estonian television showed also special edition of the news at 11:20 on that day. Before news, Kanal 2 regurarilly showed slow message scrolling in the screen: "Looduskatastroof Eestis. Reporteri erisaade kell 18:50"(Natural disaster in Estonia - Reporter's special edition at 18:50). If Kanal 2 was broadcasting that special edition, I saw terrible floodings in Pärnu, Haapsalu, Kuressaare... and other coastal areas. At the same time, Pärnu was full of curious people (hurricane chasers? ) who were photographing and filming the hurricane and these floodings. BTW, TV channels really used oftenly word "Hurricane". Even EMHI told, that "You can call that a hurricane". At 19:44 lights went out again. At night, lights came back but still with low voltage. 2 kilometers far, in Lepiku farm, power came back at 2:00(AM). We are on different power stations, but we losed and got power back exactly on same time. During the evening, winds were blowing force 4 to force 5 I guess. I went sleep at 20:04. Next morning I woke up. Power was back but voltage was only 130V. In the cellar, grandfather measured even 260 volts! Something was wrong. If I got home from grandparents place, I found out, what storm was done in Laguja. Trees were down in the forest, one tree fell down just near the garden in Lepiku farm(where I do locate at this moment), wood shed has lost its roof, greenhouse was pretty ragged. It was a real hurricane. Wind reached really gale-force. Record of hurricane Manfred in 2001 and another hurricane on August, 1967 is broken. We had a short power outage about 14:05 too. Then it lasted until 15:01. And that's because Atlantic Ocean is warm.

  • EMHI put a special page about the hurricane on its web site
  • Estonian Television's home page is full of storm news
  • Thousands of power stations knocked out
  • Coastal areas flooded
  • Winds reached barely category 2nd hurricane-force in Kärdla, Estonia.
  • Laguja had possibly winds up to 20 m/s and power outages
  • Storm damaged Laguja too.

I decided to stop naming storms. EMHI uses Germans data. Germans named that beast as Erwin. Another hurricane with minimum central pressure 960 millibars, Freddy is coming. I named Erwin as Natalja. One country(possibly Swedes) named it Gudrun.

Strongest hurricane in several decades!

With best wishes,

Tarmo Tanilsoo

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