The gusty snow squall that whipped across the region early Wednesday morning caught all of us by surprise. But most of us were safe indoors, or in cars. Don Baugh, vice president for education at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, was in his kayak, out on the Severn River, commuting to work. His unusual, but normally placid morning routine suddenly became very frightening.
"I ... was able to outlast the blow, but barely," he said. Here's his story, sent to the WeatherBlog via email:
"I have paddled 14,000 miles, through 14 years of commuting, and tackled four tropical depressions, and countless northwesters, nor'easters, and squalls. This is the first bad weather that caught me off guard.
"I glanced to the horizon, when I was at the mouth of the Severn, about 1 mile from shore, and my reaction was whoa, this is not good. That storm came out of nowhere. I raced to shore, but clearly was being overtaken.
"When the storm hit, I was about 3/4 mile from shore, and had to head into the wind, shifting my course, as the winds shifted from SW to W to NW. I had my fast racing kayak, as I was not expecting harsh winds, which cannot take any gusts on the beam as they can push you over in a fraction of a second.
"I kept paddling into the wind, hard, trying to keep some forward momentum, so that my rudder would correct course changes. With head down to keep my hat flying, blinding rain, and with a steady 50 mile wind, it was a question of time. I could not last 30 minutes, maybe not even 15, before I would succumb, tip, and then really have issues to deal with. The water is cold.
Editor's note: Water temperature at Thomas Point Light this morning is 49.3 degrees.
"The sky behind the blast was blue, so I knew the back side soon would allow the winds to moderate. They did to 25 mph, or so, and I continued on my merry way, but feeling like I was visited by some phantom stalking me in the night, and whipped."
Baugh later called the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, and asked whether this event had been forecast.
"As someone who spends lots of time on the water, I want to inquire about this storm, so that it may inform future decisions ... I did talk with a ... forecaster. They apparently did issue an alert shortly before 7 AM, a little after my departure. This apparently is a freak early spring phenomena when winds aloft are able to penetrate to the surface, with rain. They sometimes only have 15 minute warning of an event.
"This was almost exactly the same scenario as when the Baltimore ... (Harbor) Taxi capsized two years ago. There were reports of winds to 51 knots (58 mph) at the same time, but somewhere else. The winds I encountered I estimated to be about 50."
Glad you made it to shore intact, Don. It's the last time I'll complain about the JFX.
