Camas winds are making me crazy! (Vancouver, Salmon Creek: renter, new house, refrigerator)
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Long time lurker, first time poster. My husband and I moved with our two young girls to Camas four months ago. We live on Prune Hill and really enjoy our new home, neighbors and the community. However, the seemingly relentless wind has started to grate on me. I am a native to the PNW and grew up just across the river where it is also windy but must say our new place is the windiest place I have ever lived! The back side of our home faces east to an open field so we have no protection during high winds. My question is - does the wind blow for days on end like this all of the time? In the last two months I would say we have had four instances where the wind blew for at least theee days and did not relent the entire time. It is so loud I have to sleep with earplugs! Anyway, I hope I don't get crucified on this forum for posting this but I just want to know if it will be windy like this all winter long or if this is just an unusually bad stretch. We definitely knew Camas was windy when we moved here but I was not prepared for this!
Pretty typical winds through the gorge there yes. Whenever there is a low pressure system on the coast it effectively sucks the air from east to west and gets amplified like through a straw in the gorge.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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This is an unusual yr. one of just a few that could be considered too windy. (In my 30+ yrs in the area). I am above Cape Horn, so have much higher / colder winds and gusts, but nothing like growing up in WY and Colorado (where I woke up one morning to find the neighbors new house blown completely away. Clothes, drapes, and furniture stuck in the fence row for 3 miles.)
Prune Hill gets a healthy hit of wind, there are some really nice sheltered areas, but you are not gonna have a sunrise view over Mt Hood.
There is even a marked difference in winter temps winds in Vancouver. 164th / Cascade Park was frigid when I commuted to work there from Hazel Dell. Salmon Creek is probably the most sheltered area in Vancouver. If you need in the Camas school District, look to get in the 'wind shadow' of tall hills, there are some very accurate wind maps on aviation web sites that will indicate the prevailing exposure.
This is an unusual yr. one of just a few that could be considered too windy. (In my 30+ yrs in the area). I am above Cape Horn, so have much higher / colder winds and gusts, but nothing like growing up in WY and Colorado (where I woke up one morning to find the neighbors new house blown completely away. Clothes, drapes, and furniture stuck in the fence row for 3 miles.)
Prune Hill gets a healthy hit of wind, there are some really nice sheltered areas, but you are not gonna have a sunrise view over Mt Hood.
There is even a marked difference in winter temps winds in Vancouver. 164th / Cascade Park was frigid when I commuted to work there from Hazel Dell. Salmon Creek is probably the most sheltered area in Vancouver. If you need in the Camas school District, look to get in the 'wind shadow' of tall hills, there are some very accurate wind maps on aviation web sites that will indicate the prevailing exposure.
Stealth makes a good point. In Camas, views are proportional to wind speed. The better the view the more exposed the location and the higher the wind speeds. I see this every day when I walk my dog. We live in a sheltered area backed against a green belt with tall trees in the Deer Creek area. I often hike up the trail to the fancier neighborhood of Renaissance Summit directly above us which has the fancier homes with 270 degree views of Portland and Vancouver.
On windy days like these past few days the winds are light as I walk up through the trees along the greenbelt which is a sheltered canyon area. But when I break out onto the streets in Renaissance Summit I just get absolutely blasted by winds. Also I have noticed that in "view" neighborhoods the trees are all cut down or cut down to stubby little street trees so that people's views out their front windows are not obstructed. All the flowering pears in Renaissance Summit are pruned way down to about 10-15' in height so they don't obstruct views whereas they are 30+ ft high down the hill in Deer Creek where there aren't so many views to obstruct. This also has an effect on winds. Less street trees means less wind barriers in the neighborhood.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Newintown84
Long time lurker, first time poster. My husband and I moved with our two young girls to Camas four months ago. We live on Prune Hill ... My question is - does the wind blow for days on end like this all of the time? In the last two months I would say we have had four instances where the wind blew for at least theee days and did not relent the entire time. ...We definitely knew Camas was windy when we moved here but I was not prepared for this!
anecdotal, but a good story for your kids. to help get through a windy spell..
Our area is Forest Hill / Windy Ridge, (Washougal) a small framed (Light-weight) old timer neighbor (since deceased) told our kids that when he was a kid, he would tie a rope from the house to the barn and pull himself (hands and knees) eastbound against the wind to go to the barn to do chores, and anchor himself on the rope to get back to the house without being blown to the Pacific Ocean..
Our renter (next door) told us he had 8 days when he could not open the door to get out due to the strong wind. (he moved to St Thomas US Protectorate in Caribbean !)
The School Bus driver claimed... "when I was a kid, we had to decide whether to climb over, or crawl under the power line, because snow was drifted 20' in front of our house." (Mt Pleasant School has a picture of kids standing on top of bus and snow is taller). I think it must have been taken in "The Gap' (Old Belle Center Road, between SR 14 and Mt Zion). Still drifts full. The homes near Mt Pleasant School are a sight after a windy snow,... grass on east side, and snow drifted to the same level of the roof on the leeward side.
On Christmas Day ~ 1999? we opened our front door and snow was imprinted to the very top, (drifted nearly 10' deep) and yes... only 10 short minutes from Prune Hill!
I hope you can endure and enjoy your home. I regret to say.... I replaced our LP wood composite siding with Hardie siding and the house became a refrigerator (increased convection heat loss of cement board). I will need to change to something better, next time I can afford it.
Thank you for all of the replies. I love our community so will try and find some solutions to help me cope on extra windy days.
My kids actually sleep great even in the wind but the stories will be fun to tell. We have cement fiber siding and our home gets very chilly at times! I never made the connection it could be the siding.
We also live in Prune Hill, view home. We too get the winds. It blows against the back of the house and on the roof, and it creates a constant rumble. I cannot stand it.
But, there is hope. First, realize the winds blow like this only in the winter. Once late February rolls around, the winds in Camas are generally done until November/December (though there could be a storm in March).
Second, I am told the wind frequency isn't all that great in Camas. This has been my experience. I have queried my long-lived Prune Hill neighbors frequently, and they all agree we are looking at eight to ten high-wind days a year. You'll get a few days in November/December; a few days in January/February, and then maybe a couple single days thrown in. The rest of the time, it's quiet. Once the end of winter arrives, it's going to be very peaceful. The winds generally come on clear, sunny, cold days. Cloud cover and precipitation kills the occurrence of the strong east winds.
Third, I now realize it's the constant sound of the wind that grates on people like us. I've purposefully gone out on my deck when it sounds like it's raging. And you know what? It's blustery, but it's not too strong. In Camas we're a bit removed from the Gorge funnel, and this matters. So we'll get 20 mph sustained winds, occasionally you'll see 30 sustained mph, and only once have I seen a 40 mph sustained, and that was short lived. Yes, you can get gusts that are higher. But for us, the power usually stays on, downed trees are rarer for us, and we simply do not get the truly big, scary winds that others experience.
And we have it easy compared to others. On high wind days I have purposefully visited the mouth of the Gorge, places east of Camas on the Washington side, and towns closer to Mt. Hood on the Oregon side. These places have wind, and it is noticeably more powerful than what we get in Camas. I've been at the Vista House when it's 70+ mph, the car is rocking side-to-side and it is difficult to stand. I would not want to live any further east, or further into the Gorge.
Finally, you've hit upon one of the solutions, especially for sleeping. Quality earplugs. I'm sure you know this, but learn how to properly insert quality foam earplugs, and it will drown out most of the sound. I'm partial to Howard Leight earplugs. This goes a long, long way to reducing wind stress and fatigue at night, because, again, it's the constant sound of it. Some are susceptible, some are not. I know I am, and you may be too.
Another tip: get a quality pair of over-the-ear headphones. The big suckers with the huge leather cups that completely envelop your ears and shut out the outside world. This is what professionals use when they need quality sound, or they have to work in a studio, on a set, in an open office where there is a ton of background noise. When you are watching movies, TV, even doing computer work, plug in and wear your headphones. It will block out nearly all the ambient noise, including wind noise. It will allow you to watch your programs or do your work without interruption from the wind noise. It will also drown out noise from your household, including the kids. I have found this to be very effective against the wind, you can lose yourself for hours in your work or entertainment and I forget about the wind for hours at a time.
You will love Prune Hill. The weather generally is really great. The views, the schools, the neighbors, a really great place to raise a family in the United States. The one drawback is the occasional wind event during winter. If you can make it through the ten days or so of winds, you'll love your house and your community. That's been my experience.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by USDefault
We also live in Prune Hill, view home. We too gejt the winds. It blows against the back of the house and on the roof, and it creates a constant rumble. I cannot stand it.
But, there is hope.
...
You will love Prune Hill. The weather generally is really great. The views, the schools, the neighbors, a really great place to raise a family in the United States. The one drawback is the occasional wind event during winter. If you can make it through the ten days or so of winds, you'll love your house and your community. That's been my experience.
Thx for your encouraging and informational post, yes, OP hopefully can find a diversion during the storms, and be grateful their home is not surrounded by 200' tall trees that can fall on a windy occasion.
My yrs in WY brought realization and studies of mental state during constant wind environment. It can be very real and damaging. Find a respite of some sort.
I don't know where you guys are moving from but I frankly haven't found the winds around here to be very unusual. I think central Texas had a lot more consistent winds throughout the winter than I have seen in Camas. The winter winds in the plains states can be pretty endless and monotonous. Here we seem to get the occasional windstorm but it isn't nearly so relentless. But I expect if you live further out the gorge they can be pretty intense.
I don't know where you guys are moving from but I frankly haven't found the winds around here to be very unusual. I think central Texas had a lot more consistent winds throughout the winter than I have seen in Camas. The winter winds in the plains states can be pretty endless and monotonous. Here we seem to get the occasional windstorm but it isn't nearly so relentless. But I expect if you live further out the gorge they can be pretty intense.
True, one of the reasons I was happy to leave North Texas was the incessant winds, summer and winter. I settled here in the Salmon Creek area that is very calm in comparison.
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