Dog walker films winds lifting forest floor during Storm Babet in Scotland

[redqueen]

Last edited Sun Oct 22, 2023, 09:48 AM - Edit history (1)

On edit, you may remember a similar incident in Canada a few years ago, this article explains how it happens - and has videos if you missed them before

https://time.com/5433267/breathing-forest/

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Wow. Is it because the tree roots are so

matted that when the trees blow, they're lifting the dirt?

[redqueen]

3. Short roots

Really short, apparently.

[ornotna]

2. Wow. What an incredibly shallow root system

Glad the pup wasn’t allowed to get too curious.

[Wingus Dingus]

4. I wonder what keeps the trees from toppling over? Other trees?

Weird.

[mopinko]

6. probably. they might die, anyway.

that’s a lot of torn roots. and a lot of storm water, stirred up stuff.
that’s a fatal combo for trees if it goes on for very long. might take a few yrs to die, but some of them almost certainly will.

[mopinko]

5. dude, get that puppy out of there. &conifers be like that.

sorry, i was so worried for that pup.

we had a freak storm here about 20 yrs ago. it was march, iirc, and had been rainy, but since the ground was still frozen the water just sat. then we had a rly wet snow, a windy storm, and the spruces around here fell like dominoes. they were very common foundation trees around here, so many of them had a sheltered side, like 1 i had in front of my house. the lopsided weight and the squishy ground, and boom.
even free standing 1s went tho, cuz the wind was so strong, it rly drove the snow into 1 side of everything.

and yeah, they all pulled up a big mat of earth. out to their driplines, usually. all trees do when they get blown down, something i’ve sadly had a lot of experience in my supposedly ’climate safe’ city. but proportionately, conifers have broader but shallower root systems.
oaks and maples pull up about twice their trunk circumferences.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. Worried about the dog and wondering why anyone would stay so close to trees about to fall

Nice video, but not worth the risk to that dog, in my opinion.

[mopinko]

8. or he gets caught in a hole.

then the tree comes back down. just dumb.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. Oh lordy, yes, that was the scariest part of the video.

Instead of just saying, "No", the person doing the recording should have recognized the dog's peril.

[hunter]

10. I hated that video. Last time we had a storm like that around here...

...me, my wife, and all the dogs were hanging out on the bed as the house shook and the trees fell.