Re: Stage Collapses at Ottawa BluesFest
Storm cell movement (direction and speed) is rarely related to surface wind speed and direction.
I live/work in West Texas, where a light breeze is 18 mph, and storms like this pop up all the time. I've survived a clear-air gust front that shut down a street festive, wiped a stage clean of almost all backline, pushed me 100' down the paved street on my ass, and took away EZ-ups never to be seen again. Estimated winds through the downtown area were estimated at 90+ mph. There are a few aftermath videos of this Ottawa event out there and the most striking thing to me about them is that not a single tent tore away, temporary fencing didn't blow down, and people were still standing throughout the gust. That tells me that surface winds were likely below 40 mph, if they even got that high. Now I'll admit that surface winds and 20' winds can be different (they measure both out here), but that stage roof should have been the most secure item on the entire festival grounds. There's even video of people holding their EZ-ups in the gust, and I do know that it doesn't take much to rip the canvas right off of one of those.
However, I am also a trained SkyWarn spotter, and the moment I heard that "We didn't know it was coming" comment I was as disgusted as that blogger. I don't know the condition or capabilities of Canadian weather radar, but I do know that down here you can see gust fronts on radar. You can even get wind speed product from the radar feed, and you can get these feeds on iPhones (etc.) There's really no excuse for not knowing.
Of course, this year the weather world-wide has been very odd, so maybe this type of storm is a 100 year event up there. I still (from the comfort of my chair) think that some shortcuts may have been taken during roof construction.
