My Palm Tree Exploded

[troutsqueezer]

Went to the movies yesterday to see the latest Hunger Games (which was quite good, by the way) and came home to see this:









According to my weather station, we had a wind gust clocking in at 70 mph. It blew the palm fans over the house and into the back yard too. It took about 10 feet of old fronds from the top of the tree. Was planning on having a tree trimming service come out this Winter to strip the palm trunk, now he has less to do.



It took three trailer loads just like this to haul it away.

 

[/pine]

just curious...is that a Washingtonia ?

 

[dave1949]

Dennis, that looks like one of those situations where the unexpected takes you by surprise when you first see it, and the mind is racing to make some sort of sense out of it.

This would be my reaction: WTH?

 

[RobertBrown]

just curious...is that a Washingtonia ?

Doesn't look like it.....looks like a cabbage to me.
Here in Florida, a Washingtonia Palm tree is one that has these huge, unavoidable, razor sharp thorns all over it. I hate those things, I have to help an elderly lady with one every so often.
Palms are a pain in the ***. I would only plant one if it was the only choice...better than nothing.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I bought it 30 years ago and I can't remember the variety, it does look like the Washingtonia from the pics.

Dave, after all this time up here, we've seen many strange occurrences and this is another to add to the list. Perhaps the strangest one of all was the night we had a very bright and crimson aurora borealis for several hours. Unusual for central Calif.

 

[jimmyj]

Wow, that looks so strange. Any idea what actually happened?

 

[troutsqueezer]

Wow, that looks so strange. Any idea what actually happened?

Yup, a very strong wind gust was to blame, v-e-r-y strong.

 

[300UGUY]

My folks have palm trees in Florida. A local guy comes around every year to trim them up. Uses a ladder and a big knife. 14 degrees earlier this am, reminds me, maybe mom and dad need me......

 

[oosik]

One thing for sure - it was a mess and you are lucky it didn't damage something. Luckily I've never had winds that strong - probably 40 mph is about the max here. Our strong winds will just blow a load of dead pine needles out the trees.

 

[SPIKER]

last week we had 63 mph straight line winds, with 78 gust recorded on top of our hill, and NO I have not looked into our woods to see how many more trees are down... I was JUST starting to get some of the cleanup done fro ice storm and wind storms over last 5 years.

Mark