LAK said:
I have seen many an RV awning ripped right off a trailer or motorhome.
One of the five most informative 'survival shelter' experiences I've had in my life
was at a large outdoor festival in NV called 'Burning Man'.
The year was '00.
Being desert rats & mountaineers who've experienced the fiercest (at that time) that mother nature could throw out in the southwest on the open desert and above the treeline, but having survived it (e.g., three days in by foot above 12k'), we designed a trailer 'patio' tarp made of army surplus tarp (16' X 10'); aluminum stays over the small cargo trailer (which offered a ventilating 1' space above the roof in a 100*F summer heat during the day; 3' X 1" steel anchors driven into the playa with a sledge; & rachet straps on both sides to hold the entire rig onto the top of the trailer.
The second day there, after making sure the 'hatches were battened', we sat through the first of three afternoon 'wind storms'.
To visualize this takes some amount of imagination.
Scenario: you're on a dry lake bed (playa) of dry, fine, dusty alkaline dust, measuring approximately 6 mi X 40 mi. It was left over from the end of the last Ice Age when the Great Basin was mostly a large lake. This one, the "Black Rock Desert", was the largest lake.
So, in August & September, in the afternoon, convection (thunder) storms gather in the west. You can see them developing for hours before they hit.
Just before the rain begins - IF the rain begins at all - there are down drafts off the front. Winds clock sustained 70 mph.
I saw dust blowing vertically, and people trying to stop their sun/rain covers from blowing away.
Visibility was 20'.
From my secured trailer, with tarp held on by ratchet straps & long, steel anchors,
which didn't even flap in the wind, much less blow away,
I watched Walmart & Costco {tm} "picnic" shelters get blown into the county to the east of there.
That was in '00.
Before then, 1998 was the hottest year recorded on Earth since record keeping began.
Now, 2005 has exceeded that as hottest year on Earth since record keeping began.
Winds are driven by heat flow down a thermodynamic gradient.
What I saw in '00 was only the beginning.
Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy.
And make sure you've got extra tie downs on your trailer rig.
Nem
