A self-respecting weather nerd really should have paid a bit more attention to the weather forecast this morning—I gained a false sense of security by the vague notion that it would all blow-over by the afternoon.
BoM
But I wasn't sure I wanted to ride home in conditions as windy as this:
I can't remember seeing the Doppler radar look more like the rainfall radar in the middle of a tropical storm. Of all weather conditions, I hate the wind the most. But on it's own the rain situation didn't look too bad:
The BoM's road weather warning said:
Motorists are advised of extremely windy conditions during today with gusts of between 100 and 130 km/h. This will be followed by a period of rain late this afternoon and evening with a squally westerly change. Hazardous road conditions are expected to result.
[emphasis added]
Hmm, that seems fairly obvious (to me at least).
Dross
And then the bullsh•t emails started doing the rounds: "The police say you should get out of the CBD now" and dross like that. Yeah, right. Like it's in anyone's interests to fill the roads with panicky people trying to make a mass exodus. If it were really that bad, the police would advise people the direct opposite: stay put where you are and sit it out indoors.
My favourite was something allegedly heard from one of the big banks, which was apparently advising that staff in "non-business critical" roles who had to get home over the Westgate or Bolte bridges were allowed to leave early. Who seriously wants to nominate their work as "non-business critical"?
It's been so long since we've had a decent fall of rain in Melbourne that people were just going silly. One of my co-workers all but insisted on driving me home—as if that would get me home faster than my bike on a rainy night.
Pleasant
As it turns out, I had a really pleasant ride home. I just watched the rain radar until I saw a gap in the rain and hit the road. It wasn't even particularly windy, although there was plenty of evidence of a big blow: trees down, police directing traffic, and debris everywhere. My "favourite" pile of debris was a two-foot deep wall of leaves that had gathered in an underpass that I go through—totally clogged my mudguard and derailleur.
Judging by the number of bikes left at the racks, a number of my fellow miners chickened-out and took the train home. Or tried to. I'm glad I didn't: it sounds like it was a complete shemozzle.
I sat out the rain and nasty gusts in the pub after work. Had a pint of ale and a chicken parma, and headed home about 7:30. Hardly any traffic on the road, no bikes at all on the Upfield bikeway... we clearly need more and nastier weather to scare everyone else off the highways and bikeways, and leave them to us. :-)
Wasn't that just a classic case of normal Scottish weather? I'm sure their 5th graders bike in weather like that and think it's just a little breezy.....
I was riding straight north on the way home and there were several points where I was blown to a complete halt. I got home to find that we'd had a bunch of tiles blown off the roof. These are big tiles.
So, some level of concern about the weather is not unwarranted, it wasn't just a minor every day gusty wind.
By chance, were you riding /with/ the wind? In a sheltered river valley? :)
I'm not denying it was rough weather, quite the reverse—I was concerned all day about whether I should ride home. My decision to ride (including when to ride) was a pretty carefully considered one, and with some luck I rode in relatively safe and calm conditions. Had I left an hour earlier, it would have been a totally different journey—and potentially rather dangerous.
And I guess that's my point. At its strongest, the wind and the storm were clearly life-threatening, but nasty storms don't last forever. I don't think it was just luck that I had a good run with the weather—I was patient and used the available information sources to my advantage.
I stand corrected. It must have been pretty harsh out there. Unlike Treadly's my good fortune was not due to planning but dumb luck. Parkville to Kensington at 6pm was a magic window. It seemed I had no wind or rain to speak of and as I bring my lunch I didn't get out during the day. My morning ride in was a delight as well.
And I think that gets back to ChrisS's point: many of us work in climate-controlled cocoons that are pretty well insulated to what's going on outside. Sometimes it can be a rude shock to emerge into the real weather to ride home (especially when it's very hot or very cold).
Comments
As I suggested in a MC network email this arvo, just sit tight and wait it out. Or consider other options if you want. Invariably in this modern world, many people are pod dwellers and probably didn't even realise what was going on.
BTW - there was no decent rain in the greater metro area; that actually occurred last week.