There's a recognised phobia of wind, I don't think i'm at that level, i'm not curled up in the foetal position but I am in my office in the loft at work and the gusts are making me tense up.
Didn't sleep very well last night with gusts hammering the house. I've lived there 20+ years and it's a windy spot but in all that time the only issues we've had are a couple of lost slates (and several flattened green cheap greenhouses). It doesn't help that I was out at 5.30am recently collecting the contents of our recycling bin from the street in a gale/pissing down rain.
I get particularly stressed with open windows and have to have them all shut, especially so if we are away from home. I dare myself to leave them open to (hopefully) demonstrate that they aren't going going to be torn off but I panic and buckle.
Just wondering how common this is, is anyone else bothered in this way?
I'm very aware and respectful of the power of the wind (as a sailor and power kite flyer) but the only real time(s) I've been anxious about it is the potential damage it can do / is doing (fences, motorcycle covers or as you say, slates etc) or when camping and ending up with the tent material on top of us in the night.
We have woken up several times to that sort of damage on campsites but luckily (so far anyway) it's not happened to us. Part of that may be down to reasonable quality kit (even as simple as decent tent pegs) and good 'prep' if there is a storm on it's way (additional guy lines and even guying the motorcycles upright etc).
I used to leave our loft skylight open about 6" on it's built in prop but it looked like it might be vulnerable in a storm (although it survived a few) so I don't any more.
I'm not typically kept awake by the sound of high wind when at home but I think there is a threshold above which I am (when you start to hear slates rattling).
The current wind level has had our (empty) wheely bins over and the seen recycling boxes going up the road but they generally stay put once laid on their side and / or wedged up against stuff.
You've just made me recall a camping trip in Wales (Shell Island), our tent pulling shapes with poles snapping and having to unravel the mother in law from her completely flattened one! Moving cars around in the dark trying to use them as windbreaks. Maybe i've got PTSD.
Totally agree - the friction stay on the bedroom window gives up and the window gets blown wide - so I have to get up and close it. Worry about the fence blowing over - the bin blowing over and spilling its contents, A ridge tile smashing into the car.......
Yup, been there, done that ... and erecting actual 'beach style' windbreaks to try to take some of the load off the tent.
;-)
Whilst it might be I think you are simply being realistic / sensible by being conscious of the (destructive) power of the wind.
I think the issue for me (in this household) is the image of trying to protect our house / possessions from any further damage should something get damaged mid-storm ... trying to wrestle with a tarp or fence panel at 5am in the wind and rain. Those who couldn't do that, wouldn't then carry the burden of doing it (or not doing it), should the need arise? Where the buck stops etc?
Out fence has been due to be replaced for many years now but every time another bit breaks because of a storm (and I provide a(nother) temporary fix) the less likely I am to want to then go out and buy a replacement because the chances are, so will many other people and so you can end up with less choice or the 'leftover' panels. Then when it's calm and sunny I don't think about replacing the fence. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
[1] We like the Khyam range of 'Rapidex' (quick erect) tents and whilst you would think the (plastic) joints might be a weak link, they haven't been so far (in winds that have flattened lesser tents). They are also available as spares so we ensure we have some spares (then we will never need them). ;-)
Ironically the biggest storm (wind wise) we have camped in was in Scotland and we were in the 'Rigidome XL', a fairly slab sided QE 4 berth frame tent and whilst it moved about quite a bit, survived the night.
The tent I've tent the safest in in a storm was an inflatable igloo (the main 'frame' was inflatable) so whilst the material was often down near you, you knew nothing was going to snap. ;-)
Well, when I had a 15foot rota fm aerial on the chimney stack, then both wind and thunderstorms did make me worry, but as neither seemed to affect the thing other than wind making it sing a bit, I guess I soon got over it. I had to take it down when the rotator got dead spots and kept getting stuck, by that time the use of a direct aerial on TV and fm was really pointless, since there were too many strong local signals and all the TV regions were showing the same crap. I do still have the log periodic TV aerial in a shed, but I doubt it will get used as its insulated u bracket seems to have been taken by the fairies.
Have you ever heard the term Wind up their tails? Many animals seem to get very strange behaviours when its windy, but for us, there is always going to be that niggling doubt that something may break on the house. Luckily, my windows open up with a very very strong hinge at the top, and retaining arms on the bottom so apart from rain blowing in, nothing much can happen to them Likewise, the loft is kind of see through, ie you can see out between the tiles, they are all the same round here, and it seems to not have any detrimental effect except one year when we had the wrong kind of snow, and myself and my father had to use buckets to remove it before it melted and wet the lagging and ceilings under it. Brian
I think what I find most annoying is the noises in the chimney, which is still here, even though it has a ventilated cover on it, the pressure changes do move the plastic inside which blocks the bottom end makes flapping noises and in the Bedrooms are two old now disconnected gas fires in the chimney and we have stuck cardboard over them to stop drafts, but you still get flexing as the pressure changes of course.
Phobias are very common. Sometimes they're just a mild inconvenience; sometimes they can disrupt your life. Usually they're somewhere in between. When it's a phobia that doesn't arise very often, like yours about high winds, I'd be inclined to just grit your teeth and put up with it. Obviously there could be some practical measures you could take. But when a phobia interferes with normal life you need to do something about it. That either means self-help (read up on it), hypnosis, or drugs. I have known a small dose of SSRIs to have a miraculous effect on agoraphobia. The only real phobia I've had myself concerned my hands. I was afraid that they might get chopped off or attacked. It was the result of an elderly relative who was babysitting me when I was about six warning me this if I let my arm hang down from the bed a monster might come from under the bed and eat my hand. The result was that I couldn't do the hand signals on my driving test.
Had son over yesterday afternoon, so thought he could help with some tree branch removal. It was only when I was well up the tree that it occurred to me how much I was moving around.
Branch came down without damaging fence below. This morning I find the fence blown over in the wind, unrelated to my activity.
The only time I've felt decidedly uneasy was the day of the 2nd Great Gale in the late 80s (the one during the day). I was on the 10th (top) floor of our office and the metal windows were rattling and banging in their frames. A coat stand started swaying in the wind that the window didn't completely keep out. Then a window pane shattered, scattering shards of glass everywhere. People started to congregate in the labs which were in the spine of the building, furthest from the windows in the desk areas to either side.
Suddenly there was an almighty crash from outside. There was a single-brick-thickness of wall about 10 feet high and maybe 50 feet long which divided the path into the building from the loading bay. A colleague used a wheelchair, and the disabled parking was a marked bay alongside that wall. He'd got back from going into town at lunchtime, and found that someone else (not disabled) had parked in the bay, so Steve had to park in the main car park. His car had a lucky escape, because the unauthorised car got badly dented by the falling bricks. When that wall was rebuilt, I notice they made it two bricks thick, with plenty of cross-bricks every so often for added rigidity.
I slept through most of the 1st Great Gale, and woke when apparently it was almost over. Amid the general buffeting of the wind, there was an occasional loud crack. When I went to look at the damage round about before going to work, I saw that a lot of the pine trees in the forest which began about 1/4 mile from my house had snapped off at about 10 feet but the trees were packed so densely that they didn't fall over but remained standing alongside their roots - a very eerie sight.
It wears me down, the constant battering and outside it makes the cold feel much colder. Not a headache as such, but like a headache where I find it hard to concentrate on anything.
I can cope with any weather but wind. We've been painting the outdoor woodwork - huts, summer-house etc.. The weather hit in the middle of that process, so put on hold for now.
Bin day today and not one blown over, just a pair of alloy steps still out from the painting.
I forget the brand, it's not been out of the loft for a good few years but it was a fairly decent 8 man tunnel job and it stood up fairly well to be fair, the devastation on the site the morning after was something to behold.
I went back to the camping shop to replace the splintered pole sections and asked about thicker ones. As you said yourself the guy there said it's the pegs that matter, I was skeptical but got better pegs and indeed, it fared much better in future bad weather. Pretty obvious really I suppose.
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