
15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure - secondary
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/01/tumbleweeds-trap-drivers-force-road-closure-washington
======
teslabox
I heard tumbleweeds are an invasive species. Wikipedia seems to confirm:

"Kali tragus [...] is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it
dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along.
It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to
South Dakota, perhaps about 1870. It now is a noxious weed throughout North
America, dominating disturbed habitats such as roadsides, cultivated fields,
eroded slopes, and arid regions with sparse vegetation." \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbleweed#Plants_that_form_tu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbleweed#Plants_that_form_tumbleweeds)

These are the western equivalent of Kudzu:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu_in_the_United_States)

I wonder if there any species from the Americas that are invasive to
Europe/Africa/Asia... ?

~~~
seszett
Argentine ants are well known for having colonised Europe and largely
eradicated the local species of ants. Phylloxera almost killed the French wine
industry when it arrived in Europe.

American turtles (called "Florida turtles" in French, not sure of their
English name) and nutria are also invasive species in Europe, but those were
initially introduced on purpose.

~~~
irrational
Well, that's fascinating. I had no idea the French had the equivalent of
french fries, french toast, french beans, french dip, french onion soup,
french onion dip, french silk pie, and other stuff that has "french" in the
name but probably has no real relationship to France.

~~~
avip
A known crowd-pleaser in this field is the "Jerusalem Artichoke"[0] which has
nothing to with any of the words.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke)

~~~
jessaustin
I'm convinced the second word was selected because prefixing an "f" tells one
most of what one needs to know about this vegetable.

------
philiplu
Cliff Mass, a meteorology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle
blogged about this last Friday[1]. There's a comment[2] from someone in the
area who notes that some of those tumbleweeds were likely radioactive, since
this is downwind of the Hanford Site[3], a relic from the Manhattan Project
and later Cold War which has been leaking radioactive waste for decades.

[1] [https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-meteorology-of-
tu...](https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-meteorology-of-tumbleweed-
storm.html)

[2] [https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-meteorology-of-
tu...](https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-meteorology-of-tumbleweed-
storm.html?showComment=1578110638732#c3173872887216332904)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site)

~~~
stonogo
Every time this happens, people start telling these stories.

[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-
xpm-2001-apr-15-me-51273...](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-
xpm-2001-apr-15-me-51273-story.html)

Out of approximately 10k tumblweeds tested per year, approximately 20 per year
are found to be radioactive, for values of radioactive approximating one CT
scan. So even if you drag a geiger counter out there to find a hot one, then
cuddle it for a while, it isn't as interesting as the campfire stories make it
out to be.

~~~
justinclift
Guessing the mutation rate in the seeds from the radioactive ones will be
higher than normal?

~~~
JulianMorrison
Yes but most mutations just break stuff.

------
foreigner
The title is misleading. The individual tumbleweeds are only a couple feet in
diameter. It was a 15ft pile of tumbleweeds.

~~~
TwoNineFive
But but but "journalism"! You're talking to the fourth-estate here, have some
respect!

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blackoil
From the story. In 2018, tumbleweed swamped a town.
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/18/attack-of-
th...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/18/attack-of-the-giant-
tumbleweed-california-town-swamped-in-invasion)

Would be pretty scary thing to wake up to.

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netgusto
My risk avoidance systems detects danger in staying in the car within the pile
of tumbleweeds, as I expect them to be easily flammable; isn't that the case?

~~~
itronitron
yes, they are extremely flammable although likely to completely burn up within
a minute or two as they don't have a lot of mass when dried out

not sure whether it is safer to exit the car and risk getting hit by another
vehicle or risk being stuck under a burning pile

~~~
siffland
I don't know, I saw this on an Outer Limits episode once, those tumbleweeds
are up to no good or maybe they are trying to communicate.......

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_of_Silence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_of_Silence)

------
duelingjello
Paging _Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t_ to Youtube some non-moss gathering
desert flora outside of Chile.

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viraptor
It gets interesting when the wind ends up blowing just the right way. This was
in Australia: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2016/feb/18/fast-...](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2016/feb/18/fast-growing-tumbleweed-called-hairy-panic-blows-into-
australian-city) covering walls of a few houses. There are some specific
underpasses that get covered every year as well.

------
jcadam
I developed an allergy to tumbleweed whilst living in Colorado. So I moved to
the east coast.

Ok, it wasn't _just_ because of the tumbleweeds.

The sound a tumbleweed makes when it gets caught in your undercarriage and
drug down the highway is... annoying. Annoying enough I'd sometimes pull over
to remove them (particularly if I'd collected more than one). Couldn't imagine
being buried in them :(

~~~
reaperducer
_Couldn 't imagine being buried in them :(_

One of my favorite photos of my wife is where she's trapped inside our car,
surrounded by piles of tumbleweeds at a rest stop in Arizona.

It was a windy day, and I stopped to use the facilities. When I came out,
there she was — frantic behind the glass, not knowing what to do since it was
the first time she'd ever seen tumbleweeds. Naturally, I couldn't pass up the
photo opportunity.

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tallanvor
This happened in Benton County, and tumbleweeds are basically the one thing
that you're still allowed to dispose of by burning in the cities there. --When
I was a child it was common to also burn the leaves in autumn, but that's been
illegal since around 2000 or so, and for a number of years before then they
had limited doing this in cities to specified burn days.

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faeyanpiraat
It would’ve been a perfect onion article if it was not real

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WarOnPrivacy
Best ball pit

~~~
sparrish
No way. Those suckers are all dried up and not 'soft'. They're scratchy and
the branches can be sharp when broken. Jump in and you'll come out bleeding.

This coming from years of experience cleaning up tumbleweed piles against
fences here in Colorado.

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tus88
Somehow I don't think that truck is "trapped".

~~~
winrid
Probably not. But also probably unwise to drive if you can't see...

~~~
dsfyu404ed
He could probably see just fine when he stopped. That picture is taken hours
later after many tumbleweeds have piled up to the point of it becoming a
newsworthy event. I think being reluctant to crunch the stopped Prius (or
whatever) in front of him is why he doesn't proceed.

~~~
winrid
Yeah, now that you mention it of course he was stopped by the people in front
of him :)

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k_sze
The article doesn’t talk about it, but is this also a result of climate
change?

~~~
joncrane
I believe that Western Washington is indeed experiencing less rainfall lately.

~~~
reaperducer
_I believe that Western Washington is indeed experiencing less rainfall
lately._

The local news report that The Guardian lifted its article from was from KAPP-
TV, which is in Yakima. Yakima is considered eastern Washington, not west. It
is on the dry side of the state where there are farms and desert.

