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High Winds Cause Widespread Damage & Power Outages Across Central Virginia Blue Ridge

March 2, 2018

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Photo Courtesy of Steve Crandall : A Nelson County Sheriffs Deputy looks over the damage to a car after a tree fell down on it while driving in the area of Rodes Farm in Nellysford. Wind gusting to over 60 miles per hour cause widespread power outages and damage across the area. Friday - March 2, 2018

Central Virginia Blue Ridge

As Tommy had been discussing in his weather updates over the past few days, the expected high winds arrived late Thursday night causing widespread damage and power outages across the area.

Screen capture vis CVEC : Around 3:30 Friday afternoon around 8500 people were reported without power by CVEC. That number began shrinking just before dark as some power was being restored to areas where poles were not broken.

In our conversation with Melissa Gay of CVEC Friday afternoon she told us some customers need to be prepared to be without until Saturday evening. “We have some very hard hit areas like the Whitehall Substation where 100 percent of the customers were out. There’s lots of poles broken and that will take a more time to fix.”

Photo courtesy of Sage Beam : A tree blocks Route 151 near Ashley’s Market Friday morning – March 2, 2018.

Numerous roads and highway were blocked across the area due to downed trees and powerlines.

Photo By Tommy Stafford – This large tree fell across the parking lot of the Nellysford Post Office landing very near Route 151. – Friday – March 2, 2018

The highest recorded wind gust we could find in our BRL WeatherNow network was 60 MPH at our Ski Barn location at the Route 664-151 intersection near Devils Backbone.

Our BRL-SkiBarn WeatherNow station recorded a 60 MPH wind gust on Friday afternoon – March 2, 2018. Click to enlarge.

Photo By Tommy Stafford : This very large tree fell here in the front yard of BRL Friday morning – March 2, 2018 when winds gusted to 53 MPH.

Photo By Sage Beam :A large tree block Route 151 Friday morning near Ashley’s Market.

Photo By Sage Beam : Route 151 was also blocked in another location near Tanbark Drive.

Photo By Tommy Stafford : Crews with Becerra Lawncare cut up a large tree that fell here at BRL on Friday morning when winds gusted to 53 MPH.

Photo By Jessica Marshall : A broken traffic light swings in the high winds late Friday afternoon at the intersection of Route 151 and 250 just in side Albemarle County on Rockfish Gap Turnpike.

Photo Courtesy of Jesse Rutherford : In East Nelson on Peavine Mountain near Browning’s Cove a brush fire burned Friday evening.

In addition to many downed trees and powerlines area fire crews had spend much of the day Friday and the evening fighting brush fires being fanned by the continued high winds.

Tommy says we can look forward to a much quieter weekend with the winds finally relaxing throughout the afternoon Saturday.

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