Think of a time when you heard snow rumble and accelerate in a slide down the roof, punctuated with a thump as the pile hit the ground; then intensify that sound several times over. Add in the crack of a tree limb at the start of the rumble. Finally, imagine that sound in varying intensities starting anew every 5-10 seconds for some 36 hours! That was this storm.

This old maple is certainly a grandparent tree planted many years ago, perhaps when our house was still used as a parsonage. The trunk of this tree is about four feet across. We don't know if it will survive. We were encouraged to see the branches return to normal. (Click a picture for scene animation--240k .)