ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area It Was a Bit Windy -- At One Tower Only

One does not often think of "Memphis" and "Tornadoes" together, but the fact is they're more common than you might suspect.
Indeed, the tornadoes typically follow a very specific path. They seem to form at the airport, right over the FedEx fleet (I never knew they had so many planes!) then proceed due east -- almost as if they were driving down Democrat Way / Winchester Avenue. They rarely touch down, with the damage occurring about 25 ft. (8 meters) above ground.

Along this route runs several ultra high-voltage lines. Last week one of the towers ("cowboys") took a direct hit. I've never seen such a tower fail. I am also impressed that a) the wires didn't fail, and b) none of the nearby towers failed.

I wonder what wind speed these things are designed for. The eye wall of Irma (Cat 3/4) went right down the path of the 230K transmission line behind me and they didn't lose anything. We were on the North East corner of Ian (borderline Cat 5) and they held up too.

I'm not aware of any transmission line or tower damages around here from storms, hurricanes, or the tornados that seem to be hitting us here recently.

Interesting to note is that the tower has only a single HV circuit on it, as it is designed for double circuits.
Perhaps unbalance and the right amount of tornadic action caused this tower to topple over.

The ones behind me are precast concrete poles. The 95' one is 3' in diameter and the 115' one is 4' in diameter. I am sorry I missed them being installed but I must have been out of town or something because I don't remember it at all. That used to be a jungle back there so I never really paid that much attention to what they were doing. Now I am there every day. The FPL right of way is my dog run.