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A gust of wind in Tacoma made me rethink my whole rigging plan
I was setting a 12-ton HVAC unit on a roof downtown, had the tag lines ready and everything. A sudden wind came off the water and the load started to swing toward a glass facade. My spotter yelled 'Hold!' and we stopped the swing with about 3 feet to spare. Now I check the hourly wind forecast for the exact address, not just the city, before I even start my lift. What's your go-to source for hyper-local weather on a jobsite?
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pat_moore18d agoMost Upvoted
Man, that wind off the water is no joke. Had a similar scare with a steel beam last year. My crew swears by Windy.com now, you can zoom right in on the map and see the gusts. It even shows the direction changes hour by hour, which is huge for planning.
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foster.tessa18d ago
Twelve tons swinging toward glass would make anyone check the weather twice... but pat_moore, you really trust an app that much? I've seen those forecasts be wrong by 10 mph on a calm day. Sometimes you just have to watch the flags on nearby buildings and feel it change. Relying only on a screen seems like asking for trouble when a real gust hits.
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