SG> EP>        I've never really experienced high wind in the desert. Come to
  > >        think of it, I've never really been around the desert. Sand and
  > >        wind, yes; but not the desert, and certainly nothing like that.
SG> MS> You can't see anything and it feels like you're being
  > MS> sandblasted. Quite nasty, and if you're trying to go anywhere, you're
  > MS> going to get lost even with a compass because in the desert, there 
re
  > MS> enough magnetic anomalies that you need to sight on a terrain feature
  > MS> and then do a back azimuth on another in order to reestablish both
  > MS> true north and the line of declination until you get to the next
  > MS> terrain feature when you have to do it all over again.
SG> MS> Best advice is to sit tight where you're at until it's over
  > MS> and just stay warm and hydrated.
SG> MS> I tend to carry a lot of gear and that includes extra water
  > MS> and something to throw over the windshields so that the sand doesn't
  > MS> pit them, if I'm in a place where it's prone to that. I had a friend
  > MS> who was caught in a storm like that in the Mojave once, and his car
  > MS> became undrivable because he couldn't see out of his newly frosted
  > MS> windows. Those plastic tarps are cheap insurance against that and 
hey
  > MS> don't take up much room.
SG> MS> Currently, I'm looking at getting one of those Russian copies
  > MS> of a Primus stove and throwing it in my pack. It'd be nice to get 
nto
  > MS> a dead spot during one of those winds and brew some coffee. There are
  > MS> often some rather radical drops in ambient temperature beyond normal
  > MS> windchill when a wind like that comes up,.........., even in summer.
SG>I've been through 76-mph desert winds here in El Paso two years ago, and
  >the same winds in the Blizzard of '78 in Ohio. I'm hard put to say which
  >was worse at the time. The desert winds pick up all the dust and sand.
  >Even among the buildings here conditions were unbearable. But OTOH, I
  >wasn't concerned about freezing to death. Though you don't worry so much
  >about a blizzard damaging your paint or your windows...
SG>Afterwards, the blizzard was worse. It took use months to dig out from
  >that, literally. After the sandstorm here, life was back to normal
  >quickly (except for those who needed to repair their roofs).
        Blizzards are worse because of the risk of hypothermia, but a
sand storm runs a close second.
SG>I have never been through 76-mph winds during a hurricane, but I'd be
        I've sene winds like that out here, and I'd just as soon avoid
em.
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 X SLMR 2.1a X Your guns today, your liberty tommorow.
--- Maximus 3.01
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