Re: Stage Collapses at Ottawa BluesFest
Years ago, I spent an entire day on the Chesapeake Bay on my boat paying careful attrention to the weather and skirting my way around isolated thunder storms.
At about 3:00 I decided I had enough and headed for the dock. I hit the river, and half way up the side channel was hit by a similar straight line gust front. In the narrow channel I really had nowhere to go, and no visability. A sailboat near me had to drop anchor because their aux engine wasn't enough to provide steerage control. I spent an extremely long 20 minutes pointed into the wind at about half throttle, just holding my position.
Later I found out, that several large sailboats (up to 40 feet) docked along the side of the channel were lifted off of their boat lifts and set down on the other side of their docks, and when I got back to the marina, another set of boats had been torn free and were pushed up against the side of the basin.
It is amazing how isolated the position of extreme strength of these storms can be. On another time I watched a true tornado come off of the land and turn into a water spout over the Bay about a mile north of me.
For any outdoor gathering of people, I hope someone is watching the weather. For the record, the most extreme winds are usually associated with the leading edge of the storm (straight line wind) or the southwest corner (rotation wind) of the storm.
