Mother Nature strikes back

Whether you believe that climate change is human caused, or not, I have to say that, at least anecdotally, the weather seems to be getting a little hairy lately, even for us here in the banana belt of SW Ontario.

On July 20, I began to follow the radar for what was shaping up to be a banger of a storm, and this time, little old Sarnia was going to be center stage.

I ended my work day 30 mins early (in Auburn Hills, MI) and began driving home.  It didn't look as severe as the satellite imagery had showed, but I knew that most of the intensity was focused in the north.

As soon as I crossed the Bluewater Bridge into Canada, the devastation was apparent.

This is a huge mature Blue Spruce on the corner of Front Street and Exmouth.  Torn right out of the ground and laid on its side.

Large tree downed across the fence at Navelli's parking lot on Exmouth

Huge tree downed on to a house.  Location not known (shared from Facebook)

A lot of the older trees around town got hit hard

One of the more artistic captures of the damage.  I think this was near Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, but not certain (shared from Facebook)

The following pics were more local to our neighborhood...this is only a few streets over

Massive tree downed on Brock St.  This is less than 1000 yards from our place

 All in all, we were very lucky and escaped with very minimal damage.  It did however, reinvigorate our desire to cut back some of the neighbor's big maples that have infringed close to the house.

Hope everyone was ok, in the end.

Listening to:  "Uprising" by Muse