Storm Doris - our first severe storm this year. Have there been casualties? Why do most trees survive?

Double rainbow at Chediston but under the rainbow gusts of over 60 miles per hour!

Storm Doris continues to bring strong and damaging winds as we head through the rest of the day. The Met Office have issued an AMBER 'Be prepared' warning as we see gusts of 50-60mph and possible even 70mph.There will be a mixture of sunshine and blustery showers with strong and gusty winds. Maximum temperature 11

Here is a lovely tree in our Town Park but why do trees usually weather serious storms?

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Our Trees have roots that help anchor them but far more strength is given by their cylindrical trunks and branches which contain rings of strong fibres that are flexible. Also storms are usually at times when many have shed their leaves
Surprisingly Trees need winds to survive.When plants and trees grow in the wild, the wind constantly keeps them moving. This causes a stress in the wooden load bearing structure of the tree. So, to compensate, the tree manages to grow something called the reaction wood (or stress wood). This stress wood usually has a different structure (in terms of cellulose or lignin content and more) and is able to position the tree where it’d get the best light, or other optimum resources. This is the reason why trees are able to contort towards best light and still survive loads in even awkward shapes. A contorted building like that would easily fall. The tree is able to grow in a more solid manner – thanks to the reaction wood.
f there’s no wind, the trees end up being much weaker and aren’t able to survive for long. This happens in homes too. Plants grown indoors, without any kind of wind hitting them on a regular basis tend to become weak. So, before they are planted outside in the wild conditions, their structure has to be strengthened by causing stress or hardening off.
​So wind is what makes a tree strong enough to sustain the wear and tear that it will face later in life.


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