Windy Wednesday in Yakima Brings Christmas in May

Gusty winds in the Yakima Valley yesterday (May 20) wreaked some havoc near my house akin to what Dorothy Gale experience in the opening of "The Wizard of Oz".

Living in a housing development in East Valley that still has tons of construction going on around us, we've gotten used to lots of dirt and debris circulating around us when ever Mother Nature decides to unleash her mighty breath. Yesterday, however, we saw something that we weren't expecting at all!
Surely anybody that has lived or visited Yakima for any length of time, seeing a gigantic tumbleweed, well -- tumbling! -- down the middle of the avenue is not an uncommon sight. But a CHRISTMAS TREE?!?! in the middle of MAY?!?! We weren't sure which was more strange or funny!
In the photo gallery above, you can see the crispy brown tree as it had settled in the middle of the crosswalk on Faucher Road in Moxee. (Hey, at least it had the courtesy to not jaywalk!)

It was a lot less funny for KATS listener (and former Seattle Seahawks ticket winner) Scott Wristen. A giant tree in his front yard got completely uprooted and was felled just adjacent to his house as you can see in the pictures above!

My 15 year-old son, Drew, took some video on his phone before we decided to move the tree out of the road to avoid in danger to unsuspecting motorists. In the video, you can hear the wind howling as it whistles past the microphone on his camera. If you also look closely at the snap he took of me next to the relocated tree, you can also notice the strength of the wind by virtue of the position of my hair and shirt.

Have any pics from the windstorm in your area? Send them to us via the KATS mobile app!