My family was poor, very poor. One Christmas, we couldn’t even afford a tree. So my parents got a tumbleweed. We decorated it and that was our tree that year. It has made for a wonderful story all the siblings tell
@@DetectiveStablerSVU that’s actually very sad. Since in most areas of the country it hasn’t been legal that long. It was expensive, so they felt being a stoner was more important than providing for their family. 😢
In 1993 a colleague and I travelled to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for a program with the Army (the US Army evaluates computers it buys at this Fort). We’re driving to the post and a tumbleweed crossed in front of us. My colleague said “What’s that?” I said “It’s a tumbleweed!” “That’s an actual THING?” “Yup.” “Now I have seen everything…” “Wait ‘til you see a roadrunner…”
My brother was 18 he saw a roadrunner and couldn't believe it was an actual roadrunner. He said "Roadrunners don't look like that!" I laughed and said "The only roadrunner you've ever seen was blue and says 'meep meep'! Do you think hedgehogs are blue and wear tennis shoes too?" His mind was blown. Cartoons lied to him his whole life. Wait until he hears the truth about the Easter bunny and Santa. 😆 He's nearly 40 now, maybe his kids will break it to him gently. 😉
@@DamonCzanik Met a woman who, when she was a little girl, wanted a bunny. One day her parents presented her with a bunny. A day latter she was in tears as she said to her father: “The bunny doesn’t talk!”
Roadrunners are quite a sight... But seeing people react to a saguaro in person can be pretty fun to watch. When dogs see a cactus for the first time, that is a pretty interesting thing to witness. And the lizards outnumber squirrels on what trees there are out here.
@@DamonCzanik Wait till he sees a Tasmanian Devil (hint - they don’t look anything like Warner Brothers think (they are actually black with a white chevron on their chest (but also don’t make good house guests))).
Tumbleweeds are actually quite docile, and will only attack if they feel threatened. As long as you don't get in between a tumbleweed and their young, you should be fine. Just remember, if you ever should find yourself on the wrong side of an angry tumbleweed, make yourself small and DO NOT make sudden movements. Running will simply trigger their natural predatory instincts.
Please don’t spread false information. My brother and I did this and the Tumbleweed dragged him off. I still vividly remember his screams as he bounced away, thoroughly embedded in the Tumbleweed’s interior. I never know what truly happened to him following that unprovoked attack, but the simple fact that these things use humans as food for their larvae keeps me awake at night.
In fact, if you scratch them gently under the chin, they may even become tame! When I visited a park with my parents near Red Rock Canyon ss s kid, I managed to adopt several curious tumbleweeds as big ss myself [by hooking them together], and thereafter they followed me bouncing snd bumping along the trail. I will never forget the expressions on other hikers' faces when they encountered a small girl with four or fiive enormous tumbleweeds jostling down the trail behind her. I also recall the marvelous secret Valley of the Tumbleweeds, when we looked down from a ridgeline into a gully or draw far below to see it simply PACKED with tumbleweeds like a colony of tribbles. Good memories. ( Note: in general, it is not a good idea to touch the wildlife or feed, feral tumbleweeds. They should be left in the wild to be wild. This was in the 70s, and I was only a kid, before we knew things like that.)
Just don't set them ablaze. While fire is an effective weapon against their dry, thorny carapace, their lethality will be increased in their final moments.
I lived in Northwest Kansas as a child and I remember the tumbleweeds well. Most of the time my parents would just slow down and drive through them as they rolled across the highways and streets. Sometimes though there were so many, and so thick, we would just have to wait at the edge of the mass of TWs until the volume declined. There were also a couple of Christmases when my mother would go out and find just the right size of tumbleweed and would spay it some sort of silvery stuff, I don't know what it was, and then decorate the tumbler with miniature items of the season. That was our Christmas tumbleweed. She thought it was fun and us kids liked it.
I also am from NWK Goodland to be exact. One Christmas in 60s my dad picked out perfect TMs painted them white and made TW snowmen for Christmas decorations. Good times.
We have a lot of brush fires here near Hesperia, CA. A couple years ago there was a big fire and the wind kicked-up, creating several "fire -tornados" from the rising draft. There would be several at once, a couple hundred feet tall, sucking up and spitting-out flaming tumbleweeds, which were also blowing at high speed across the road. It looked hellish....It is scary how fast fire can move...
Used many a tumble weed to start campfires as a boy scout. The trick is to fold them on themselves and wrap part of it around the main mass. Lights easy, burns kinda fast and pretty hot.
I'm from South Dakota. I'm 80 years old now, but when I was a kid, there were lots of Russian Thistles. They could be used for cattle feed if harvested correctly. I grew up in Potter County which is west of what used to be called the Missouri River which now is Lake Oahe. We had Russian Thistles there. Modern farming has eliminated the Russian Thistle. Koshia weed is now the tumbling weed. It too is a good feed if put up right, but it seldom is. Life changes swiftly.
such an interesting insight, bless you for sharing! As you correctly point out, life changes swiftly. I'm sure the area, and the world in general, looked very different when you were a young person.
That's beautiful! A few days before my loved one passed, he woke up for a short time. One of the few things he said to me was that he felt like a tumbleweed. Since that day, my last memories of him are forever associated with the tumbleweed.
This is the kind of deep dive on a totally out of left field topic that made me fall in love with this channel. Then got addicted to the rest of the Simon cinematic universe. Thanks TIFO!
I live in Mesa, Arizona. It was just a town when I was a kid. There were lots of tumbleweeds. We used to make tumbleweed snowmen. Mesa is a city now and has kind of melded with the surrounding cities. Don't see them tumbling around any more. Kind of miss them.
I live in El Paso, TX and it's tumbleweed season here right now. The thorns stick to everything and sting like hell. And brush fires are the worst because roots will smolder just below the sand. So even if you think you've smothered the fire out with dirt, it could start right back up an hour or two later but worse. And water is a limited resource in the desert.
I grew up in Northern Michigan, but learned to love the desert of West Texas. I lived in the lower valley of El Paso for two years, crossing into Juarez every day for work. I saw countless tumbleweeds during my motorcycle rides and had a couple desert tortoises that would hang out in my back yard. But in that 2 years I never saw a rattlesnake or a single armadillo. I've always felt kind of cheated by that....
Another El Paso resident here. My family in Minnesota didn't believe how large tumbleweeds can get until I sent them a picture of one next to my Dodge Neon. The tumbleweed was as large as the car.
Hi. Commenting from western Texas here. Just wanted to add that when 70 mph wind comes by - these things become monsters. They can get huge. Imagine you were, like me, ambushed from behind by a not-entirely dried out tumbleweed while you are pumping gas. With the initial smack is gonna come lots of dirt that was trapped inside and possibly planty-bit debris or powder that will torment those with seasonal allergies. For me, it made my eyes red and puffy and had me sneezing while also wincing in pain because it just made my back and shoulders look like they were recently used as a cat's scratching post. By planty bits. Planty bits make it itch! So... hard smack, whippy tendrils, allergy-twin powers activate, then OMG A CAT HAS MY VOODOO DOLL and finally... the worst ever kind of itch you will immediately regret attempting to scratch or rub. Yes - I was fully clothed. That tumbleweed gave no fucks for my work-branded polo shirt. So... fuck tumbleweeds. I liked them until they ambushed me one by one throughout a windy week. 🤣 ( I dodged the others.)
I live in the Oregon Outback, I have trained myself to recognize Russian Thistle when it first sprouts, and try to get it pulled then. If I don't get it when it's brand new, I end up with those little spikes in my hands. I put up a fence last year, so hopefully I will have less to pull this year!
I was attacked by one driving from Amarillo to Dallas. Just going down the highway and out of nowhere one jumps in front of my truck. Scared the piss out of me. Sucker just appeared out of nowhere.
Back around 80 I was in the USAF in West Texas riding my bike to work on 20 - 45 mph winds. While I was leaning into the wind I was suddenly attacked by a small 4ft tumble weed. It promptly consumed me and became part of my bike. I can just imagine what others saw. It had to look like a cartoon. A tumble weed attacked a bike which became part of the weed and started to roll along with it. Getting untangled was work.
Back in either 2012 or 2013, I was driving on the southbound Interstate 215, just west of the city of Moreno Valley, CA. It was a rather windy day which could push large tumbleweeds across the freeway. Eventually, one of these tumbleweeds, which was larger in height than the Honda Civic that I was driving, was being blown directly into my path. Because of the surrounding traffic, I had no choice but to plow directly into the offending tumbleweed. The plant exploded upon impact, leaving bits and pieces clinging to the car as well as several small scratches in the paint which was really unfortunate because it was my brother's car and I had to explain to him what had happened. 😳😲😄
Reminds me of the time me and my best friend were headed from Portland to LA and while we were driving down the 5 somewhere in-between Redding and Sacramento, all these huge tumbleweeds started blowing back and forth across the freeway. Everyone's trying to avoiding hitting a tumbleweed plus avoid hitting each other in traffic. Complete chaos.
I grew up amongst tumbleweeds. In Victorville, when it was 4000 people. They are ok unless you are allergic to them. Our town has a tumbleweed snowman up every year. Clearing natural areas encourages tumbleweeds and devilheads.
As a kid living in Saskatchewan we encountered a lot of tumbleweed. One summer day a bunch of us gathered up a bunch of it and build a house out of it. Unfortunately, a wind came up and collapsed the house on some of us. It took some time for the local fire department to cut us out of it and we were all rather scratched up.
I never tried building anything from tumbleweeds, but I learned pretty quickly as kid the benefits of wearing gloves when cleaning them off of the barbwire fences and around the yard on our farm in Southwest Saskatchewan.
In American cities, one occasionally sees a wayward hair extension blown around by the wind. This is then referred to as a “tumbleweave”! (Yes, I have seen these myself in Baltimore!)
My husband is from the South Dakota county (Bon Homme) in which the farmers who got the Russian Thistle seed mixed in with their flax got the whole thing going. Understandably, Bon Homme County does NOT advertise themselves as "Home of the Tumbleweed". 🤣
I built fences in SD for a while. Having spent hours having to clear these things from fences before being able to work on them, I have mixed feelings on this little butterfly effect lol.
I live in Tucson,AZ and I haven’t seen a Tumbleweed in 20 years. I remember when people used to grow 3 of them in their yards or find them and spray paint them white, attach them to a pole in their yard and decorate them as snow men at Christmas. I’ve also seen them sprayed green and decorated as Christmas trees. Of course, this was mostly in the 60s.
In Southern New Mexico and West Texas one of the biggest problems that tumbleweeds cause is that during the very infrequent rains, which are often very heavy, they can clog up grates and fences across drainage ditches and cause flooding.
A few years back I was driving cross-country and hit a stretch of road that looked like a designated tumbleweed crossing. It was a particularly windy day and the land and buildings formed a natural alley that funneled them all down this one section. It was really weird to watch.
I live less than 10 miles from the coast in San Diego County California (where California meets Mexico for the geographically challenged) and we had 4 large tumbleweeds in grow our backyard this winter. Not sure how they breached the wood fencing, probably all the high winds. They were the size of comfy chairs when one dried up and rolled down the slope. San Diego county is technically heavily landscaped desert, so we get tumbleweeds in urban areas all the time. The largest one I've ever seen was the size Volkswagen beetle sitting in the middle of a major street. Tumbleweeds are giant, round, prickly tribbles; a cute nuisance.
When I lived in San Bernardino county in Southern California, there were days when tumbleweeds would go rolling across the plains. When the Santa Ana winds (which could get to around 80 mph) would come through, they didn’t so much tumble, as flew through the skies. Tumbleweeds are incredibly light, they probably weigh less than 2 lbs at most. They wouldn’t really hurt, unless they hit you in the face.
I noticed a few responses from San Bernardino , so I thought I'd mention Fontana late 60s early 70s it was a frickin alien invasion, used to block us in the house. As fast as you cleared them they'd be back. Hellish times LMAO.
When I was growing up in the 1950s in west Texas, tumble weeds were a common Xmas decoration. My mother would spray paint one-usually gold-and attach small red ornaments. Also popular colors were silver and blue. If you were really fancy, there was some spray-on snow added.
@Jim Flagg lol. I used to pose them with cigarettes and cans and take pictures... different state though, I was too young to roam around when I lived in TX
I went to college in rural northwestern Nebraska. While there, and working in Walmart, I'd usually cut through the hospital parking lot on my way to work. Since the area was hilly, I'd walk on the asphalt until I got to a short concrete wall where I would jump to a lower level and continue walking. If I didn't look, sometimes I wouldn't see the pile of thorn filled tumbleweeds. It usually took me a few minutes to get out. Sometimes knees hight, occasionally i was waist deep.
Been living in eastern Washington state for years. Yep, "Tumblegeddon" was real! Seen one that was 8-feet (2.5-meters) in diameter. Also saw a 'drift' in a road cut that was 10 feet high, 15 feet wide and 50 feet long (3 m x 4.5 m x 15.2 m). One end was sticking out onto the highway. There was a cop car with the lights going so drivers would slow down and change lanes to stay away from it.
Lived in central Washington for a while (still homesick, but I digress), soon as I saw this I remembered when the tumbleweeds were covering up whole cars down around Hanford and Tri-cities a few years back lol. I had seen them in other places before then, but never around Hanford.
@@MineGames131 Not likely unless USA actually gets into a new civil war. Driven by dislike/hate of Democrats being the majority in Portland & Seattle and running the states. The USA is currently at the "Kansas territory in the 1840s" stage and not yet at the violent "violence of Bleeding Kansas 1854-1859" stage or "actual civil war." Other problem: Would upset the existing Republican vested interest of political power in Ore/Wash/Ida AND in Wash DC. Don't expect it to happen. For example, increasingly Christian White Nationalist northern Idaho may not be happy with more eastern Oregon Mormons in Idaho state legislature. The two groups don't really like each other. These are old ideas, rehashed: Eastern Washington + Northern Idaho circa 1990 = "New state of Lincoln." In 2015 = "New state of Liberty." Southern Oregon/extreme northern Calif = "State of Jefferson." City of Pasco, WA is a majority Hispanic city. Have been rumbles of "western Pasco should form new city" for years.
Simon's pronunciation of Saskatchewan like it's a south american temple is hilarious. locals barely pronounce the first syllable. a lot of people in Canada say it like s'SKATchwen
When living in West Texas I hit a fair large tumbleweed that was crossing the road. It was a brown pants moment. We also had a tumbleweed migration so bad that we had to leave out house through the garage because they were piled up so high we couldn't open our front door.
In Eastern Oregon and Washington (and elsewhere), a new tumbleweed has appeared that is replacing Russian thistle (Kali tragus, formerly Salsola tragus) as the most common tumbleweed. The newcomer is Kochia (Bassia scoparia, formerly Kochia scoparia), and I don't know when it started to invade NE Oregon, but it was at least 20 years ago. Kochia prefers moister soil, so Russian thistle isn't being displaced, but there are areas where Kochia is so thick that if you see a tumbleweed in the fall, it's more likely to be Kochia. You can tell which is which by grabbing it with your hand; if it is prickly, it's Russian thistle, if it is soft, it's Kochia. In spring and summer, they look completely different; Kochia grows thick and tall, up to 6 feet tall, with actual leaves, but crowded together, so it is taller than wide and forms a solid wall, while Russian thistle is a spindly squat globe that is wider than tall with several feet between plants. In their dried states, they look and roll pretty much the same, though Kochia tends to roll on its side, while Russian thistle usually rolls end over end. Both tumbleweed can form very large piles; however, the bigger piles tend to be Kochia since they grow more thickly in areas where they do grow, and the individual dried plants also stick together better than Russian thistle. I wouldn't be surprised if the 2020 incident where tumbleweeds swallowed a highway near Yakima, Washington was actually caused by Kochia. That type of thing was unheard of when there was just Russian thistle in the area, and Kochia is new to the area. Plus, a few years ago, I came across an abandoned railroad cut that was packed solid with tumbleweeds, and they were all Kochia. The wrong plant may have been blamed since Kochia is new enough that most people don't realize that there's a new tumbleweed in town.
I'm originally from the southeast US, and about five or six years ago moved to Colorado, with plans to move to Arizona this coming fall. Since I've moved "out west," I see tumbleweed all the time. Especially when they cluster up along fence lines. I'd never seen one when I lived in the southeast. Now I see them all the time.
A friend of mine thought tumbleweeds were just a movie thing until they were driving across the plains of Texas and saw a whole pack of them, they called me and were like “I JUST SAW TUMBLEWEEDS!!!?”
I have a friend who out of college got a great job with lots of travel. EVERY time he came back from a trip he would drool over every city/state he visited.... It was the best EVER. I now call him Tumbleweed.
Here in New Mexico, tumble weeds are EVERYWHERE. Last week we had a sandstorm/ wind storm, and the next day I was driving past Albuquerque Academy (a private school with several acres of tumble weed covered land) and the entire half mile long side walk across from it was entirely piled up with tumble weeds, some were as large as 5x5 feet😂 I had a couple of landscaping contract jobs to clear some barren properties that were completely covered in tumble weeds. Filled up 7 truck loads with all the cleared debris. Tumble weeds take invasive plant species to the next level man…
I love it!! You're making a very good video, explaining what a tumbleweed is, and then all of a sudden, you get SpongeBob staring at a picture Keanu Reeves.
As an Oklahoman, I grew up with tumbleweeds. My dad always called them Russian Thistles, so it made me quite happy when you named them as such. In Oklahoma, we have ridiculous wind as is mentioned even in our state song and the musical. A terrifying but fascinating thing is to see them rolling while on fire. We have grass fires which can set them aflame and they move quickly spreading flames like some strange merchant of death. [Bonus fact:] One of our most famous watering holes is The Tumbleweed in Stillwater OK where we have a huge annual Testicle Festival or Calf Fry.
As a kid, an adult once told me in a rather aggressive tone “tumbleweeds aren’t real” & were merely created for cartoons (they overheard me asking another kid about a drawing they made, where they drew a tumbleweed knocking over a character). Me being so young, the adult seemed so confident about it, I didn’t even think to question it (& the internet wasn’t available back then, so I couldn’t exactly look it up). Imagine my surprise when someone showed me a video of dozens of real-life tumbleweeds being blown around, more than a decade later. I honestly hope the person who told me they didn’t exist feels pretty stupid about it now, thinking they one-upped a little kid. 🙄
In my part of Tennessee we have no tumbleweeds (hilly, forested land), so when I saw them my first day in West Texas I immediately laughed and caught one. I was surprised at how resilient the fibers are.
Had a friend that worked at the Hanford DOE site in Eastern Washington. His job was rounding up "hot" tumbleweeds. They would sporadically leave random hot spots across the landscape as they rolled and bounced. Hot = radioactive.
In my hometown of Fallon Nevada, we would routinely have newcomers to the area who thought it was cool to hit tumbleweeds with their car - until they hit one stem first. When that thumb-sized, hard stem meets a tire head on, there are no winners.
One of the best-known uses of tumbleweed in cinema is in the opening sequence of The Big Lebowski (1998), where it symbolizes the "drifting" nature of the main character.
I live in the desert, and even though everyone has lawns and stuff like that, after a storm, or just a windy day, tumbleweeds encroach. Once in a while I find one in my front yard. I think it's kind of charming.
As a kid in Vegas, for years there was a tumbleweed the size of an elephant. After a storm it was gone, and supposedly it rolled down the street and killed a guy...
I’m from Arizona. I remember as a kid collecting them and then decorating them and give them to my mom as “gifts”. She was not amused. Also we have a Christmas tree in Chandler, AZ that’s made of only tumbleweeds. 😂. I had no idea they were an invasive plant!
I was traveling across New Mexico around 2010 I ran into multiple tumbleweeds as they exploded on the highway on a wind advisory day. One tumbleweed rolled across the road and it was so big that the box truck in front of me disappeared.
Tumbleweeds can become shockingly heavy, as they pick up debris in the course of their travels. A big one smacked into the side of my car in the Texas panhandle a few years ago and the vehicle shook as if we'd gotten sideswiped by another car. It even caused the lane-keeping system to attempt a correction. Good times...
I was driving from Albuquerque back to Houston a few weeks ago and had one fly right over the hood of my truck outside Amarillo. Scared the crap out of me.
I’m from the semi arid desert of central Washington. Tumbleweeds are just a part of life. For a long time it never occurred to me that they aren’t for everyone. I saw them everyday, I saw them on cartoons…
I had two funny incidents involving tumbleweeds. The first was when I was at 29 Palms, getting ready to be deployed. We were seated in bleachers for some sort of presentation. Everyone noticed a large tumbleweed blowing past. We suddenly realised it was aimed straight at a few unsuspecting Marines (it was approaching them from behind). Inevitably, everyone started cheering the tumbleweed on, and as it hit a surprised Marine, everyone laughed or cheered "OOOHHH". The second was when I rode a Harley from Tulsa, OK, to Los Angeles on Route 66. I encountered about a soccer/football sized tumbleweed, and it suddenly seemed prudent to invent a new sport: Road Soccer or Road Polo. As you may infer, the object was to dribble the "ball" (tumbleweed) as far as possible without exceeding 2 lane road boundary (yes, I stuck my foot out to dribble). I don't remember the exact distance I dribbled, but it was probably around 1000 yards/meters.
Simon cracks me up with all of his channels. Not only is his will tell you everything you need to know about the Ukraine War, the biography of Nero, and the personal history of various serial murderers, he can provide concrete advice on how to prevent the spread of tumbleweeds .... (I'm not sure, does he know all of this or is he really good with a teleprompter? 🤔)
You mentioned the Hanford Reservation in Washington. I grew up in Pasco, just south of Hanford on the opposite side of the Columbia River. Back in the 1960s, a windstorm sent a giant tumbleweed bounding over the tall fence surrounding our garden and trapping it in there. That thing must have been close to six feet in diameter. (For those not familiar with the Hanford Reservation, it is the site where a nuclear reactor produced plutonium for the "Fat Man" atomic bomb.)
Omg first time in Colorado id rented a car and left, tumble weed crossed the road and i was shook! I thought they were fictional but nope there it was 😳 i live here now and they are all over all the time 😂
Lived in Colorado for a while. Winds kick up pretty quickly once the sun sets or rises as winds rush down from the mountains, sweeping plenty of tumbleweeds with it.
Russian thistles, juniper, sage; That's the trifecta of base flora in the American West where I live. The big tumble weeds or the really big clumps they can make are scary if you run them over, but tumble weed bowling (driving your car fast into the big clumps so they explode) is a fun activity. Tumble weeds are a curse. They're not good for animals to graze, pokey, and very difficult to eradicate. They are the reason I use garden gloves and hand weed the garden. Any relief from them overtaking an area would be welcome in the Rockies and plains.
My spouse lived in Michigan before we met. We were traveling across the Oklahoma panhandle one night, and hit a giant tumbleweed - bigger than the car. It exploded, as you might expect. Shaken, asked me, "What was THAT?" I lived in Colorado for much of my adult life, so just nonchalantly responded, "That was a tumbleweed." Then, from discussion, I learned that tumbleweeds live around the great lakes, but seldom get bigger than bowling balls - but, much lighter weight.
I live in rural WA, actually very close to Richland WA, tumbleweeds are everywhere to the point that you pretty much never notice them unless pointed out. They just fade into the background at this point
Not really living where tumbleweeds are common, (I've never seen one here) I do remember a trip to North Dakota. A couple of guys were out on the desert working on electric lines, when one turned around just in time to kick at a Volkswagen sized tumbleweed rolling toward him. It almost knocked him over but the tumbleweed went on around.
Six years ago last fall I was traveling north from Tucumcari, NewMexico and encountered a tumbleweed migration. It was like a khaki-colored caravan of “Cornish Bison”. The “herds “ were often 100meters long and half that in width. Southwest winds were propelling them at incredible speed. I pulled off the road in deference to them. Later I saw a Chevy farm truck with a gigantic tumbleweed lodged in its grill. The sweet little hitchhiker was the size of an old-breed Hereford it AberdeenAngus brood cow. As a native of central Kansas, I am no stranger to the tumblers but in my 65 years I’ve never seen them in such vigorous size nor numbers. Thank you for these videos of yours. They are extremely entertaining and informative!
Tornado chaser Pecos Hank has a lot of funny stories about tumbleweeds - he encounters them often on the lonely back roads where he drive to get close enough to photograph and take wind speed readings of tornadoes (he works with a metorological group studying tornados and lightning)
When I was a kid we lived next to a field (now a freeway). And when we got Santa Ana winds, we would watch the tumbleweeds roll down the street and watch cars swerve to avoid hitting them. We also used to see roadrunners come into our yard. They probably all disappeared when the fwy was put in.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
While a child I lived in El Paso, TX. My father took some rather large tumbleweeds and painted them white. My mother took some cardboard and made some circles and painted them black. They then took some more and made a large top hat and painted that black. They took all that and made a rather large tumbleweed snowman and tied it to the big tree in the front yard. My father grew up in far northern MI.
I've never noticed tumbleweeds until recently, idk if its a sign that they're getting out of hand in my area, I didn't know how bad it was until watching CGPgreys video about it, but I'm glad there is progress on fighting their spread.
I grew up in Colorado and saw lots of tumble weeds. My mom, now 88, used to tell me that I should never run over a tumble weed, or the center branch of the plant could puncture a tire or even your radiator, not sure if that's true but she still swears that it can happen. They really are a menace. They completely cover everything. It's really crazy. They fill up the snow fences along the highway and are a fire hazard.
I was on a TDY to Hill AFB once driving up from Phoenix when one that was probably three feet across jumped in front of my truck and I annihilated it. About half of it climbed into the cab with me, and it took weeks to get it all out.
Back in 1994, my family was visiting my mom’s great-aunt in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We turned down a road and there was a massive tumbleweed blowing toward us, and it was bigger than the Ford Taurus we were in. My mom literally screamed and threw the car in reverse. 😂
While doing my undergrad studies at New Mexico Tech, I took an image processing class. One of the aspects of image processing is the ability to find a fractal dimension of an object by analyzing a high contrast black and white image of it. For our class project, we chose the humble tumbleweed to image and ultimately came up with a value of 1.6. This is a similar value to that of a quadratic fractal curve, wich has a fractal dimension of 1.67. Unfortunately, none of us wanted to write our work up for publication.
A few years ago, when I lived near San Jose, CA, I came home to a tumbleweed in my driveway. The next spring I had a line of baby tumbleweed growing in my yard, showing me the exact path mama took. I quickly dug them all up by the root. Hopefully it was OK to put them in the "Yard Waste" can...
The first time I ever saw a tumbleweed was not in the American west but in Montreal, around oil refineries. We were working to eradicate vegetation around the places using pesticides (the 1970s). They were notoriously hard to kill requiring that every square inch to be covered otherwise they would survive. And they got HUGE, as big as a Volkswagen, as you said.
I was driving across the US on a road trip; Nevada, late at night. then, loads of tumbleweed…they are massive! i always imagined them to be football sized rather than the ones we saw that were hip to shoulder height and they really move too.
I live in Vegas. Let me tell you, that hitting one with your car is no picnic. That stuff gets into your internals everywhere. And its no fun to have to dislodge from underneath your car. Even had to replace a hose.
Wow! I have lived my whole life in Texas and have seen many a tumbleweed rumble around in west Texas. I always thought they were just Mesquite bushes that had died and become uprooted (not enough water in some areas for them to grow into Mesquite trees). Thank you for sharing this!
When I was a kid I lived in Lubbock Texas. Whenever there was wind the tumbleweeds would roll through the neighborhood. One of our neighbors had a carport that faced into the prevailing wind and it always filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling with tumbleweeds. Another neighbor, at Christmas time, would collect tumbleweeds, create a cone shaped pile of them in the living room, flock and decorate them as a Christmas tree.
I lived in a suburb outside of Denver, Colorado for a few years. It was always a trip to see tumbleweeds rolling through the neighborhood of perfectly manicured lawns and lawn ornaments. After a particularly windy day you could find a pile of tumbleweeds stacked up against a fence.
I am American, raised up north. I always thought tumbleweeds were a Hollywood make believe. Then I visited Texas, saw one for myself. It was an exciting moment on a very long drive.
I remember when I lived in Bakersfield California during the early 2000s when we found the front door completely blocked by tumble weeds one morning after a big wind storm.
I grew up in El Paso Texas. Every year my brother makes a "Snowman and Snow Woman" out of tumbleweeds, complete with strings of lights a pipe, cape and kerchief, etc. People often stop and take photographs. My Dad who grew up in the Panhandle of Texas, said they used to make their Christmas trees out of Tumbleweeds when he was growing up.
My backyard here in Tucson grew tumbleweeds and it was just a small area. Three large tumbleweeds eventually blew over the fence. I also had night blooming flowers. I love Tucson.
I lived in the city of Richland, WA in a neighborhood that was the first human settlement downwind of Hanford, 30 miles of uninhabited mostly flat land filled with tumbleweeds. Driving Highway 240 is always a guaranteed tumbleweed hit, you don't want to swerve - just plow through. I once had my front door blocked by a mass of tumbleweeds after a windstorm.
I grew up in a small West Texas town named Lamesa. We dealt with tumbleweeds. The fence rows would accumulate them. Over time, the fence rows would be covered in them, and sand, since the tumbleweeds acted as a barrier to the sand as it was blown through in sandstorms. The result was that the fence rows would eventually be long rows of soil rising above the surrounding landscape. There are fences on top of fences out there due to this. It was easier to build new fences above the old rather than dig the old ones out. Another anecdote is that one year, due to their prevalence, my parents decided to clump several tumbleweeds together to look like a Christmas tree and decorate them for Christmas.
I’m from West Texas and I remember walking home after school trying to avoid being hit by tumbleweeds on windy days. Hurts like hell. When they are “tumbling” they make a very distinctive sound. It was terrifying to find yourself being “chased” by these things.
I'm also in south eastern Arizona, and the damned things are ever present in my area. They actually start growing late winter and by the time the rainy (monsoon) season is over they can literally be as big as a VW Bug! I cant stand the messy, prickly ugly things! For almost 10 years now, I have been spraying glyphosate on every tumbleweed plant I find on my property as well as every open area around me. It has helped tremendously!
Well covered. I grew up in the western part of Texas and these things were all over the place. Very memorably one of the worst grass fires in the county (well, the worst I knew about for that time, this would've been the mid-1980s) was caused by tumbleweeds that, well, tumbled right through someone's trash fire (that they shouldn't have had anyway, it being high summer in the middle of one of the driest parts of west Texas). It took the Midland fire department an entire day to get the blaze under control, and we could see the fire from our apartment. Scary stuff.
I lived outside Alamogordo for a couple of years stationed at Holloman AFB and remember the tumbleweeds!! I once accidentally hit on on the highway to El Paso and it seemed to explode into pieces, haha 😄
Tumbleweeds are pretty common in Eastern WA state except in the north-east corner near Spokane. Some roads have short fences installed by farmers to keep cows on their land but both the Tumbleweeds and Cows find their way on to the road. The biggest issue is a small Tumbleweed that a large truck or wind blows airborne if you stop on the side of the road I would not want to be hit with that! A good reason to pull off the road on to side roads or farming roads, to get out of the car, it's also safer in general.
We chased tumbleweeds in my Colorado childhood. And every year at Christmas we kids would find the biggest roundest one we could and decorate it with a flock of clip-on bird ornaments. It was beautiful.
Growing up in Phoenix there were empty fields to the west of our house. Tumbleweeds would build up on the side of the house in the monsoon season when the winds would primarily blow from the west.
I lived in Manitoba as a kid, the seasons were hellish heat with golf ball sized hail, dust storms and tumbleweed, air so cold your lungs will freeze if you are out too long for 7 months and the Assiniboine river flooding.
There is a video of CGP Grey getting his car bogged down by tumbleweeds while visiting an abandoned location. Others may not find it as funny, but it made me laugh so hard thinking, "Defeated by tumbleweeds, of all things!"
I could watch your videos all day. I'm a fairly curious gal, but I never thought learning about tumbleweeds interesting. Thanks for proving me wrong! Keep up the awesome work!
Here in Albuquerque, we have a snowman made out of 3 giant tumbleweeds that is installed just off the freeway every year. The tumbleweed is huge (at least 6 feet in diameter). I had a friend move to New Mexico from Maryland that was blown away seeing her first tumbleweed. She thought they were just a movie thing!
Recently moved to the Southwest of the US and we have tumbleweeds aplenty. One of my neighbors in fact made a Christmas tree out of them. My late Grandpa was every bit the Oklahoman cowboy stereotype in life. So seeing these tumbleweeds makes me smile, because they remind me of the old Westerns that my Grandpa loved to watch.
The whole time you were talking about tumble weeds piling up, I was thinking about one of the times I was trucking through the Vantage, Washington area on 240, and I turned onto 24 to see massive pile of tumble weeds blocking the road. It was 2019 I believe. I blasted through it in my Peterbuilt 379, which has a long, flat fronted hood. Must have been over 5 feet deep where I went through and hundreds of feet long. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. It was scary and beautiful!
I live on the high plains of the US. Several years ago we had a "bumper crop" of tumbleweeds! Not only did they trap some nearby people in farmhouses, but they organically formed a "wall" in town - which required excavating equipment to remove. Then there was the question of what to do with them then. Alas though, there is one use for some of them. I went to a Christmas event, where there were large Christmas trees decorated with large, undamaged tumbleweeds spray painted red, green, or white, then hung by a string tied around the central stem. They were certainly pretty. I didn't know they were edible though.
My family was poor, very poor. One Christmas, we couldn’t even afford a tree. So my parents got a tumbleweed. We decorated it and that was our tree that year. It has made for a wonderful story all the siblings tell
Yeah well my family used weed. Actual marijuana. Except we were poor too, so it was actually just a stem collection from weed.
@@DetectiveStablerSVU So your family smoked too much . priorities.
That's awesome. Haha
@@DetectiveStablerSVU that’s actually very sad. Since in most areas of the country it hasn’t been legal that long. It was expensive, so they felt being a stoner was more important than providing for their family. 😢
Lucky you, my parents once got a stick
In 1993 a colleague and I travelled to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for a program with the Army (the US Army evaluates computers it buys at this Fort). We’re driving to the post and a tumbleweed crossed in front of us. My colleague said “What’s that?” I said “It’s a tumbleweed!” “That’s an actual THING?” “Yup.” “Now I have seen everything…”
“Wait ‘til you see a roadrunner…”
My brother was 18 he saw a roadrunner and couldn't believe it was an actual roadrunner. He said "Roadrunners don't look like that!" I laughed and said "The only roadrunner you've ever seen was blue and says 'meep meep'! Do you think hedgehogs are blue and wear tennis shoes too?" His mind was blown. Cartoons lied to him his whole life.
Wait until he hears the truth about the Easter bunny and Santa. 😆 He's nearly 40 now, maybe his kids will break it to him gently. 😉
@@DamonCzanik Met a woman who, when she was a little girl, wanted a bunny. One day her parents presented her with a bunny. A day latter she was in tears as she said to her father: “The bunny doesn’t talk!”
I'm a roadrunner honey, can't keep up with me.... A good old soul song from the '60s.
Roadrunners are quite a sight... But seeing people react to a saguaro in person can be pretty fun to watch.
When dogs see a cactus for the first time, that is a pretty interesting thing to witness.
And the lizards outnumber squirrels on what trees there are out here.
@@DamonCzanik Wait till he sees a Tasmanian Devil (hint - they don’t look anything like Warner Brothers think (they are actually black with a white chevron on their chest (but also don’t make good house guests))).
Tumbleweeds are actually quite docile, and will only attack if they feel threatened. As long as you don't get in between a tumbleweed and their young, you should be fine. Just remember, if you ever should find yourself on the wrong side of an angry tumbleweed, make yourself small and DO NOT make sudden movements. Running will simply trigger their natural predatory instincts.
Please don’t spread false information. My brother and I did this and the Tumbleweed dragged him off. I still vividly remember his screams as he bounced away, thoroughly embedded in the Tumbleweed’s interior. I never know what truly happened to him following that unprovoked attack, but the simple fact that these things use humans as food for their larvae keeps me awake at night.
In fact, if you scratch them gently under the chin, they may even become tame! When I visited a park with my parents near Red Rock Canyon ss s kid, I managed to adopt several curious tumbleweeds as big ss myself [by hooking them together], and thereafter they followed me bouncing snd bumping along the trail. I will never forget the expressions on other hikers' faces when they encountered a small girl with four or fiive enormous tumbleweeds jostling down the trail behind her. I also recall the marvelous secret Valley of the Tumbleweeds, when we looked down from a ridgeline into a gully or draw far below to see it simply PACKED with tumbleweeds like a colony of tribbles.
Good memories.
( Note: in general, it is not a good idea to touch the wildlife or feed, feral tumbleweeds. They should be left in the wild to be wild. This was in the 70s, and I was only a kid, before we knew things like that.)
Just remember, if they do attack you...
They are very weak to fire, it’s super effective! against them.
Hans, git ze flammenwerfer
Just don't set them ablaze. While fire is an effective weapon against their dry, thorny carapace, their lethality will be increased in their final moments.
Also, NEVER under ANY circumstances, make direct eye contact with a male Tumbleweed. ESPECIALLY during mating season.
I lived in Northwest Kansas as a child and I remember the tumbleweeds well. Most of the time my parents would just slow down and drive through them as they rolled across the highways and streets. Sometimes though there were so many, and so thick, we would just have to wait at the edge of the mass of TWs until the volume declined. There were also a couple of Christmases when my mother would go out and find just the right size of tumbleweed and would spay it some sort of silvery stuff, I don't know what it was, and then decorate the tumbler with miniature items of the season. That was our Christmas tumbleweed. She thought it was fun and us kids liked it.
Christmas tumbleweed! I love that. Your mom was a creative and resourceful lady!
I also am from NWK Goodland to be exact. One Christmas in 60s my dad picked out perfect TMs painted them white and made TW snowmen for Christmas decorations. Good times.
We did that too. Sometimes silver spray paint, sometimes gold.
@@richarderickson8840 Now I want to make tumbleweed snowmen.
Obviously a mass migration. Who knew!? They roam in herds?
We have a lot of brush fires here near Hesperia, CA. A couple years ago there was a big fire and the wind kicked-up, creating several "fire -tornados" from the rising draft. There would be several at once, a couple hundred feet tall, sucking up and spitting-out flaming tumbleweeds, which were also blowing at high speed across the road. It looked hellish....It is scary how fast fire can move...
Nice scary picture, I can only imagine flaming tumbleweeds getting shot out of a fire tornado, like a volcano shoots those lava bombs :D
Dry pines and tumbleweeds. Fire heaven.
I just moved to Hesperia when that fire hit. A unique welcome.
Used many a tumble weed to start campfires as a boy scout.
The trick is to fold them on themselves and wrap part of it around the main mass. Lights easy, burns kinda fast and pretty hot.
Fire brambles? Nooooo thanks....
I'm from South Dakota. I'm 80 years old now, but when I was a kid, there were lots of Russian Thistles. They could be used for cattle feed if harvested correctly. I grew up in Potter County which is west of what used to be called the Missouri River which now is Lake Oahe. We had Russian Thistles there. Modern farming has eliminated the Russian Thistle. Koshia weed is now the tumbling weed. It too is a good feed if put up right, but it seldom is. Life changes swiftly.
Maybe tumbleweeds were more of a West River thing. I don't remember seeing tumbleweeds in Hand County (Miller) when I was a kid in the 70s.
such an interesting insight, bless you for sharing! As you correctly point out, life changes swiftly. I'm sure the area, and the world in general, looked very different when you were a young person.
Seems the Russians cant travel anywhere without making a issue.🤣
I'm from Mobridge, but im too young to remember the "attack of the tumbleweeds" as it's known here.
Damn son you old
Tumbleweed, rolling in the wind,
A traveler on a journey with no end.
Carried by the breeze, so wild and free,
A symbol of wanderlust, for all to see.
It’s a Russian weed
@@mkvenner2 A weed rushin' across the roads and countryside to get to no one knows where...
Love this! Thank you!
That's beautiful!
A few days before my loved one passed, he woke up for a short time. One of the few things he said to me was that he felt like a tumbleweed.
Since that day, my last memories of him are forever associated with the tumbleweed.
Very nice.
This is the kind of deep dive on a totally out of left field topic that made me fall in love with this channel. Then got addicted to the rest of the Simon cinematic universe. Thanks TIFO!
That is a perfect way to explain his empire lol
Whistlerverse is a description another poster made and lol
I like Simon’s Cinematic Universe.
Same. Love the content pumped out by Simon :D
@@callmeskullz8069 oooh I like that even more!
I live in Mesa, Arizona. It was just a town when I was a kid. There were lots of tumbleweeds. We used to make tumbleweed snowmen. Mesa is a city now and has kind of melded with the surrounding cities. Don't see them tumbling around any more. Kind of miss them.
In the 80s I hit a big one with my jeep on Superstition Fwy during a haboob (we called them dust storms then). One of my surreal memories of AZ.
The Mojave desert areas of CA gets lots of them too. Hasn't quite been overly-developed as the Phoenix metro so we still get them just as much.
I almost got taken out by a tumbleweed on highway 69 in prescott valley when I was on my scooter 🛵
I live out in buckeye and still see tumbleweeds frequently on windy days also I too use to build tumbleweeds snowmen, it was the best
I live in El Paso, TX and it's tumbleweed season here right now. The thorns stick to everything and sting like hell. And brush fires are the worst because roots will smolder just below the sand. So even if you think you've smothered the fire out with dirt, it could start right back up an hour or two later but worse. And water is a limited resource in the desert.
And mess up paint jobs, damn up culverts/pipes.. ugggh. I dont muss those at all!
Grew up in the Upper Valley. We used to love burning the ones that piled up against our fence 😅 I used a propane torch just for that job...
I grew up in Northern Michigan, but learned to love the desert of West Texas. I lived in the lower valley of El Paso for two years, crossing into Juarez every day for work. I saw countless tumbleweeds during my motorcycle rides and had a couple desert tortoises that would hang out in my back yard. But in that 2 years I never saw a rattlesnake or a single armadillo. I've always felt kind of cheated by that....
Another El Paso resident here. My family in Minnesota didn't believe how large tumbleweeds can get until I sent them a picture of one next to my Dodge Neon. The tumbleweed was as large as the car.
El paso in the 70s had crazy tumble weeds but i haven't seen them that bad in decades.
Hi. Commenting from western Texas here. Just wanted to add that when 70 mph wind comes by - these things become monsters. They can get huge.
Imagine you were, like me, ambushed from behind by a not-entirely dried out tumbleweed while you are pumping gas. With the initial smack is gonna come lots of dirt that was trapped inside and possibly planty-bit debris or powder that will torment those with seasonal allergies. For me, it made my eyes red and puffy and had me sneezing while also wincing in pain because it just made my back and shoulders look like they were recently used as a cat's scratching post. By planty bits. Planty bits make it itch! So... hard smack, whippy tendrils, allergy-twin powers activate, then OMG A CAT HAS MY VOODOO DOLL and finally... the worst ever kind of itch you will immediately regret attempting to scratch or rub. Yes - I was fully clothed. That tumbleweed gave no fucks for my work-branded polo shirt.
So... fuck tumbleweeds. I liked them until they ambushed me one by one throughout a windy week. 🤣 ( I dodged the others.)
😂 This is the most accurate depiction of a tumbleweed attack I’ve ever heard. I’m also in west tx and yeah, they can become huge.
😂
I live in the Oregon Outback, I have trained myself to recognize Russian Thistle when it first sprouts, and try to get it pulled then. If I don't get it when it's brand new, I end up with those little spikes in my hands. I put up a fence last year, so hopefully I will have less to pull this year!
I was attacked by one driving from Amarillo to Dallas. Just going down the highway and out of nowhere one jumps in front of my truck. Scared the piss out of me. Sucker just appeared out of nowhere.
Back around 80 I was in the USAF in West Texas riding my bike to work on 20 - 45 mph winds. While I was leaning into the wind I was suddenly attacked by a small 4ft tumble weed. It promptly consumed me and became part of my bike. I can just imagine what others saw. It had to look like a cartoon. A tumble weed attacked a bike which became part of the weed and started to roll along with it. Getting untangled was work.
Back in either 2012 or 2013, I was driving on the southbound Interstate 215, just west of the city of Moreno Valley, CA. It was a rather windy day which could push large tumbleweeds across the freeway. Eventually, one of these tumbleweeds, which was larger in height than the Honda Civic that I was driving, was being blown directly into my path. Because of the surrounding traffic, I had no choice but to plow directly into the offending tumbleweed. The plant exploded upon impact, leaving bits and pieces clinging to the car as well as several small scratches in the paint which was really unfortunate because it was my brother's car and I had to explain to him what had happened. 😳😲😄
Reminds me of the time me and my best friend were headed from Portland to LA and while we were driving down the 5 somewhere in-between Redding and Sacramento, all these huge tumbleweeds started blowing back and forth across the freeway. Everyone's trying to avoiding hitting a tumbleweed plus avoid hitting each other in traffic. Complete chaos.
Brother: "A Tumbleweed? Did this? Are you high?!?!"
I swerve to hit them 😆
That could've caused an accident if someone didn't know what they were.
my grandparents lived in moreno valley.
I grew up amongst tumbleweeds. In Victorville, when it was 4000 people. They are ok unless you are allergic to them. Our town has a tumbleweed snowman up every year. Clearing natural areas encourages tumbleweeds and devilheads.
As a kid living in Saskatchewan we encountered a lot of tumbleweed. One summer day a bunch of us gathered up a bunch of it and build a house out of it. Unfortunately, a wind came up and collapsed the house on some of us. It took some time for the local fire department to cut us out of it and we were all rather scratched up.
I never tried building anything from tumbleweeds, but I learned pretty quickly as kid the benefits of wearing gloves when cleaning them off of the barbwire fences and around the yard on our farm in Southwest Saskatchewan.
In American cities, one occasionally sees a wayward hair extension blown around by the wind. This is then referred to as a “tumbleweave”!
(Yes, I have seen these myself in Baltimore!)
My husband is from the South Dakota county (Bon Homme) in which the farmers who got the Russian Thistle seed mixed in with their flax got the whole thing going.
Understandably, Bon Homme County does NOT advertise themselves as "Home of the Tumbleweed". 🤣
I built fences in SD for a while. Having spent hours having to clear these things from fences before being able to work on them, I have mixed feelings on this little butterfly effect lol.
I live in Tucson,AZ and I haven’t seen a Tumbleweed in 20 years. I remember when people used to grow 3 of them in their yards or find them and spray paint them white, attach them to a pole in their yard and decorate them as snow men at Christmas. I’ve also seen them sprayed green and decorated as Christmas trees. Of course, this was mostly in the 60s.
In Southern New Mexico and West Texas one of the biggest problems that tumbleweeds cause is that during the very infrequent rains, which are often very heavy, they can clog up grates and fences across drainage ditches and cause flooding.
A few years back I was driving cross-country and hit a stretch of road that looked like a designated tumbleweed crossing. It was a particularly windy day and the land and buildings formed a natural alley that funneled them all down this one section. It was really weird to watch.
I live less than 10 miles from the coast in San Diego County California (where California meets Mexico for the geographically challenged) and we had 4 large tumbleweeds in grow our backyard this winter. Not sure how they breached the wood fencing, probably all the high winds. They were the size of comfy chairs when one dried up and rolled down the slope. San Diego county is technically heavily landscaped desert, so we get tumbleweeds in urban areas all the time. The largest one I've ever seen was the size Volkswagen beetle sitting in the middle of a major street. Tumbleweeds are giant, round, prickly tribbles; a cute nuisance.
When they get that big: grab them, spray paint them and sell them!
I grew up in the Antelope Valley in CA. Tumbleweed is a way of life.
When I lived in San Bernardino county in Southern California, there were days when tumbleweeds would go rolling across the plains. When the Santa Ana winds (which could get to around 80 mph) would come through, they didn’t so much tumble, as flew through the skies. Tumbleweeds are incredibly light, they probably weigh less than 2 lbs at most. They wouldn’t really hurt, unless they hit you in the face.
I noticed a few responses from San Bernardino , so I thought I'd mention Fontana late 60s early 70s it was a frickin alien invasion, used to block us in the house. As fast as you cleared them they'd be back. Hellish times LMAO.
They CAN get really heavy as they collect debris.
When I was growing up in the 1950s in west Texas, tumble weeds were a common Xmas decoration. My mother would spray paint one-usually gold-and attach small red ornaments. Also popular colors were silver and blue. If you were really fancy, there was some spray-on snow added.
wow, sounds nice. never knew they were used like that.
This is the most 1950s west Texas thing ever. Coming from a Texan on the east side, I wish I could see tumbleweeds more here.
You Texan also like setting up all of the Armadillo road kills with beer cans along the roads. Y'all are just strange.
@Jim Flagg lol. I used to pose them with cigarettes and cans and take pictures... different state though, I was too young to roam around when I lived in TX
I went to college in rural northwestern Nebraska. While there, and working in Walmart, I'd usually cut through the hospital parking lot on my way to work. Since the area was hilly, I'd walk on the asphalt until I got to a short concrete wall where I would jump to a lower level and continue walking. If I didn't look, sometimes I wouldn't see the pile of thorn filled tumbleweeds. It usually took me a few minutes to get out. Sometimes knees hight, occasionally i was waist deep.
Been living in eastern Washington state for years. Yep, "Tumblegeddon" was real! Seen one that was 8-feet (2.5-meters) in diameter. Also saw a 'drift' in a road cut that was 10 feet high, 15 feet wide and 50 feet long (3 m x 4.5 m x 15.2 m). One end was sticking out onto the highway. There was a cop car with the lights going so drivers would slow down and change lanes to stay away from it.
Lived in central Washington for a while (still homesick, but I digress), soon as I saw this I remembered when the tumbleweeds were covering up whole cars down around Hanford and Tri-cities a few years back lol.
I had seen them in other places before then, but never around Hanford.
Slightly off topic, but since you live in eastern Wa, what is your opinion of the greater Idaho proposal?
@@MineGames131 Not likely unless USA actually gets into a new civil war. Driven by dislike/hate of Democrats being the majority in Portland & Seattle and running the states. The USA is currently at the "Kansas territory in the 1840s" stage and not yet at the violent "violence of Bleeding Kansas 1854-1859" stage or "actual civil war."
Other problem: Would upset the existing Republican vested interest of political power in Ore/Wash/Ida AND in Wash DC. Don't expect it to happen. For example, increasingly Christian White Nationalist northern Idaho may not be happy with more eastern Oregon Mormons in Idaho state legislature. The two groups don't really like each other.
These are old ideas, rehashed:
Eastern Washington + Northern Idaho circa 1990 = "New state of Lincoln." In 2015 = "New state of Liberty."
Southern Oregon/extreme northern Calif = "State of Jefferson."
City of Pasco, WA is a majority Hispanic city. Have been rumbles of "western Pasco should form new city" for years.
I live in the Tri-cities. Can confirm it did happen.
Same here in Yakima.
Simon's pronunciation of Saskatchewan like it's a south american temple is hilarious. locals barely pronounce the first syllable. a lot of people in Canada say it like s'SKATchwen
I just have a feeling he'll have better luck with... British Columbia
As our next door neighbour to the east... I just call it Saskabush.
yeah, but he needs to differentiate it from the dreaded "Sas-katch-e-two"
s'SKATchewin* (the -wan and even -wen pronunciations are a dead give away that you aren't from here, ha ha.)
Wangaratta- poor old Simon kinda didn't get it right either!
When living in West Texas I hit a fair large tumbleweed that was crossing the road. It was a brown pants moment. We also had a tumbleweed migration so bad that we had to leave out house through the garage because they were piled up so high we couldn't open our front door.
I hit one yesterday. The tumbleweed threw itself into the road and then exploded when it contacted my front bumper. Also in west texas. :)
Wonder how many others were traumatized by tumbleweeds as kids?
In Eastern Oregon and Washington (and elsewhere), a new tumbleweed has appeared that is replacing Russian thistle (Kali tragus, formerly Salsola tragus) as the most common tumbleweed. The newcomer is Kochia (Bassia scoparia, formerly Kochia scoparia), and I don't know when it started to invade NE Oregon, but it was at least 20 years ago. Kochia prefers moister soil, so Russian thistle isn't being displaced, but there are areas where Kochia is so thick that if you see a tumbleweed in the fall, it's more likely to be Kochia. You can tell which is which by grabbing it with your hand; if it is prickly, it's Russian thistle, if it is soft, it's Kochia. In spring and summer, they look completely different; Kochia grows thick and tall, up to 6 feet tall, with actual leaves, but crowded together, so it is taller than wide and forms a solid wall, while Russian thistle is a spindly squat globe that is wider than tall with several feet between plants. In their dried states, they look and roll pretty much the same, though Kochia tends to roll on its side, while Russian thistle usually rolls end over end. Both tumbleweed can form very large piles; however, the bigger piles tend to be Kochia since they grow more thickly in areas where they do grow, and the individual dried plants also stick together better than Russian thistle. I wouldn't be surprised if the 2020 incident where tumbleweeds swallowed a highway near Yakima, Washington was actually caused by Kochia. That type of thing was unheard of when there was just Russian thistle in the area, and Kochia is new to the area. Plus, a few years ago, I came across an abandoned railroad cut that was packed solid with tumbleweeds, and they were all Kochia. The wrong plant may have been blamed since Kochia is new enough that most people don't realize that there's a new tumbleweed in town.
Aren’t tumbleweeds round?
@@username8644 oh, thanks for that answer!
I'm originally from the southeast US, and about five or six years ago moved to Colorado, with plans to move to Arizona this coming fall.
Since I've moved "out west," I see tumbleweed all the time. Especially when they cluster up along fence lines. I'd never seen one when I lived in the southeast. Now I see them all the time.
A friend of mine thought tumbleweeds were just a movie thing until they were driving across the plains of Texas and saw a whole pack of them, they called me and were like “I JUST SAW TUMBLEWEEDS!!!?”
I have a friend who out of college got a great job with lots of travel. EVERY time he came back from a trip he would drool over every city/state he visited.... It was the best EVER. I now call him Tumbleweed.
That sounds more like they were bragging to me, you're a good friend for being happy for them
Oh wow! I would call your friend tumbleweed also!
Thank you for sharing this.
Give tumbleweed a wedgie, every time he comes back from somewhere NEW
Simon, everyone knows what they are. We see them floating around in your vacuous expanse of a studio.
@@MikadoYuma Maybe you're projecting?
Here in New Mexico, tumble weeds are EVERYWHERE. Last week we had a sandstorm/ wind storm, and the next day I was driving past Albuquerque Academy (a private school with several acres of tumble weed covered land) and the entire half mile long side walk across from it was entirely piled up with tumble weeds, some were as large as 5x5 feet😂 I had a couple of landscaping contract jobs to clear some barren properties that were completely covered in tumble weeds. Filled up 7 truck loads with all the cleared debris. Tumble weeds take invasive plant species to the next level man…
I love it!! You're making a very good video, explaining what a tumbleweed is, and then all of a sudden, you get SpongeBob staring at a picture Keanu Reeves.
As an Oklahoman, I grew up with tumbleweeds. My dad always called them Russian Thistles, so it made me quite happy when you named them as such.
In Oklahoma, we have ridiculous wind as is mentioned even in our state song and the musical. A terrifying but fascinating thing is to see them rolling while on fire. We have grass fires which can set them aflame and they move quickly spreading flames like some strange merchant of death.
[Bonus fact:] One of our most famous watering holes is The Tumbleweed in Stillwater OK where we have a huge annual Testicle Festival or Calf Fry.
As a kid, an adult once told me in a rather aggressive tone “tumbleweeds aren’t real” & were merely created for cartoons (they overheard me asking another kid about a drawing they made, where they drew a tumbleweed knocking over a character). Me being so young, the adult seemed so confident about it, I didn’t even think to question it (& the internet wasn’t available back then, so I couldn’t exactly look it up). Imagine my surprise when someone showed me a video of dozens of real-life tumbleweeds being blown around, more than a decade later. I honestly hope the person who told me they didn’t exist feels pretty stupid about it now, thinking they one-upped a little kid. 🙄
You can’t fix stupid.
Tumbleweeds can be very big. I once came home and found my entire parking spot taken by a ginormous tumbleweed!
In my part of Tennessee we have no tumbleweeds (hilly, forested land), so when I saw them my first day in West Texas I immediately laughed and caught one. I was surprised at how resilient the fibers are.
..... "Tumbleweeds of unusual size? I don't believe they actually exist."
Had a friend that worked at the Hanford DOE site in Eastern Washington. His job was rounding up "hot" tumbleweeds. They would sporadically leave random hot spots across the landscape as they rolled and bounced. Hot = radioactive.
I have heard stories like that. Gotta wonder how many of the tumbleweeds that ended up floating in the Columbia were hot.
In my hometown of Fallon Nevada, we would routinely have newcomers to the area who thought it was cool to hit tumbleweeds with their car - until they hit one stem first. When that thumb-sized, hard stem meets a tire head on, there are no winners.
One of the best-known uses of tumbleweed in cinema is in the opening sequence of The Big Lebowski (1998), where it symbolizes the "drifting" nature of the main character.
I live in the desert, and even though everyone has lawns and stuff like that, after a storm, or just a windy day, tumbleweeds encroach. Once in a while I find one in my front yard. I think it's kind of charming.
As a kid in Vegas, for years there was a tumbleweed the size of an elephant.
After a storm it was gone, and supposedly it rolled down the street and killed a guy...
"A dry husk, carrying a load of seeds." Thanks, Whistler, you hit the nail on the head.
I’m from Arizona. I remember as a kid collecting them and then decorating them and give them to my mom as “gifts”. She was not amused. Also we have a Christmas tree in Chandler, AZ that’s made of only tumbleweeds. 😂. I had no idea they were an invasive plant!
I was traveling across New Mexico around 2010 I ran into multiple tumbleweeds as they exploded on the highway on a wind advisory day. One tumbleweed rolled across the road and it was so big that the box truck in front of me disappeared.
Tumbleweeds can become shockingly heavy, as they pick up debris in the course of their travels. A big one smacked into the side of my car in the Texas panhandle a few years ago and the vehicle shook as if we'd gotten sideswiped by another car. It even caused the lane-keeping system to attempt a correction. Good times...
I was driving from Albuquerque back to Houston a few weeks ago and had one fly right over the hood of my truck outside Amarillo. Scared the crap out of me.
I’m from the semi arid desert of central Washington. Tumbleweeds are just a part of life. For a long time it never occurred to me that they aren’t for everyone. I saw them everyday, I saw them on cartoons…
I recently learned how freshwater mussels disperse their larvae and are able to get larvae upstream. It's fascinating.
The new zfrank video?
Baby juice
I had two funny incidents involving tumbleweeds. The first was when I was at 29 Palms, getting ready to be deployed. We were seated in bleachers for some sort of presentation. Everyone noticed a large tumbleweed blowing past. We suddenly realised it was aimed straight at a few unsuspecting Marines (it was approaching them from behind). Inevitably, everyone started cheering the tumbleweed on, and as it hit a surprised Marine, everyone laughed or cheered "OOOHHH". The second was when I rode a Harley from Tulsa, OK, to Los Angeles on Route 66. I encountered about a soccer/football sized tumbleweed, and it suddenly seemed prudent to invent a new sport: Road Soccer or Road Polo. As you may infer, the object was to dribble the "ball" (tumbleweed) as far as possible without exceeding 2 lane road boundary (yes, I stuck my foot out to dribble). I don't remember the exact distance I dribbled, but it was probably around 1000 yards/meters.
Simon cracks me up with all of his channels. Not only is his will tell you everything you need to know about the Ukraine War, the biography of Nero, and the personal history of various serial murderers, he can provide concrete advice on how to prevent the spread of tumbleweeds .... (I'm not sure, does he know all of this or is he really good with a teleprompter? 🤔)
All the info he shares is pretty easy to find. The time to actually do the search and to read articles is the thing that's hard to find!
That's kind of my point. Researching and writing that many things would be a bit much for anyone.
Yeah I can't say he does no research himself but he's definitely got help with the scripts, nothing wrong with that tho.
Yes, he uses a teleprompter. He controls the scroll speed with a foot switch. 😂
You mentioned the Hanford Reservation in Washington. I grew up in Pasco, just south of Hanford on the opposite side of the Columbia River. Back in the 1960s, a windstorm sent a giant tumbleweed bounding over the tall fence surrounding our garden and trapping it in there. That thing must have been close to six feet in diameter. (For those not familiar with the Hanford Reservation, it is the site where a nuclear reactor produced plutonium for the "Fat Man" atomic bomb.)
Omg first time in Colorado id rented a car and left, tumble weed crossed the road and i was shook! I thought they were fictional but nope there it was 😳 i live here now and they are all over all the time 😂
Lived in Colorado for a while. Winds kick up pretty quickly once the sun sets or rises as winds rush down from the mountains, sweeping plenty of tumbleweeds with it.
Russian thistles, juniper, sage; That's the trifecta of base flora in the American West where I live. The big tumble weeds or the really big clumps they can make are scary if you run them over, but tumble weed bowling (driving your car fast into the big clumps so they explode) is a fun activity. Tumble weeds are a curse. They're not good for animals to graze, pokey, and very difficult to eradicate. They are the reason I use garden gloves and hand weed the garden. Any relief from them overtaking an area would be welcome in the Rockies and plains.
My spouse lived in Michigan before we met. We were traveling across the Oklahoma panhandle one night, and hit a giant tumbleweed - bigger than the car. It exploded, as you might expect. Shaken, asked me, "What was THAT?" I lived in Colorado for much of my adult life, so just nonchalantly responded, "That was a tumbleweed." Then, from discussion, I learned that tumbleweeds live around the great lakes, but seldom get bigger than bowling balls - but, much lighter weight.
@@rudra62 rocky mountain and great plains tumble weeds are special. The idea that other places have tumble weeds is a quaint truth
I live in rural WA, actually very close to Richland WA, tumbleweeds are everywhere to the point that you pretty much never notice them unless pointed out. They just fade into the background at this point
Not really living where tumbleweeds are common, (I've never seen one here) I do remember a trip to North Dakota. A couple of guys were out on the desert working on electric lines, when one turned around just in time to kick at a Volkswagen sized tumbleweed rolling toward him. It almost knocked him over but the tumbleweed went on around.
Yea. We got a lot of tumbleweeds up here. The plains make travel quite easy 🤣
Six years ago last fall I was traveling north from Tucumcari, NewMexico and encountered a tumbleweed migration. It was like a khaki-colored caravan of “Cornish Bison”. The “herds “ were often 100meters long and half that in width. Southwest winds were propelling them at incredible speed. I pulled off the road in deference to them. Later I saw a Chevy farm truck with a gigantic tumbleweed lodged in its grill. The sweet little hitchhiker was the size of an old-breed Hereford it AberdeenAngus brood cow.
As a native of central Kansas, I am no stranger to the tumblers but in my 65 years I’ve never seen them in such vigorous size nor numbers.
Thank you for these videos of yours. They are extremely entertaining and informative!
Tornado chaser Pecos Hank has a lot of funny stories about tumbleweeds - he encounters them often on the lonely back roads where he drive to get close enough to photograph and take wind speed readings of tornadoes (he works with a metorological group studying tornados and lightning)
When I was a kid we lived next to a field (now a freeway). And when we got Santa Ana winds, we would watch the tumbleweeds roll down the street and watch cars swerve to avoid hitting them. We also used to see roadrunners come into our yard. They probably all disappeared when the fwy was put in.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
Wtf?!? Lmfao
That's a little disgusting. But funny.
@@leafyrox not to mention highly illegal... for the simple reason that no one knows how they were prepared.
Why are you saying this? You're also lucky you haven't been punched and/or arrested for your filthy, disgusting behavior.
@@randomname4726 I sneaky heeheehehe no one see me hehheheehe
While a child I lived in El Paso, TX. My father took some rather large tumbleweeds and painted them white. My mother took some cardboard and made some circles and painted them black. They then took some more and made a large top hat and painted that black. They took all that and made a rather large tumbleweed snowman and tied it to the big tree in the front yard. My father grew up in far northern MI.
I'm in Wyoming
Tumbleweeds are everywhere.
I've never noticed tumbleweeds until recently, idk if its a sign that they're getting out of hand in my area, I didn't know how bad it was until watching CGPgreys video about it, but I'm glad there is progress on fighting their spread.
Tumblegeddon, an awesome name for a band, or a cheesy movie.
I grew up in Colorado and saw lots of tumble weeds. My mom, now 88, used to tell me that I should never run over a tumble weed, or the center branch of the plant could puncture a tire or even your radiator, not sure if that's true but she still swears that it can happen. They really are a menace. They completely cover everything. It's really crazy. They fill up the snow fences along the highway and are a fire hazard.
I was on a TDY to Hill AFB once driving up from Phoenix when one that was probably three feet across jumped in front of my truck and I annihilated it. About half of it climbed into the cab with me, and it took weeks to get it all out.
Didn't CGP Grey already cover this topic?
Yes, he did. Here's his video ua-cam.com/video/hsWr_JWTZss/v-deo.html
And that was the single best video on kochia I’ve seen. I fight that stuff every freaking summer here in colorado.
So two people can't cover the same topic?
I hot a tumbleweed in my car in the middle of the night in central Texas. It scared the hell out of me and really messed up my car.
Back in 1994, my family was visiting my mom’s great-aunt in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We turned down a road and there was a massive tumbleweed blowing toward us, and it was bigger than the Ford Taurus we were in. My mom literally screamed and threw the car in reverse. 😂
While doing my undergrad studies at New Mexico Tech, I took an image processing class. One of the aspects of image processing is the ability to find a fractal dimension of an object by analyzing a high contrast black and white image of it. For our class project, we chose the humble tumbleweed to image and ultimately came up with a value of 1.6. This is a similar value to that of a quadratic fractal curve, wich has a fractal dimension of 1.67. Unfortunately, none of us wanted to write our work up for publication.
I live amongst the sage and tumbleweeds in a high desert mountain valley. Cleaning up tumbleweeds from fence lines and houses is an everyday chore.
A few years ago, when I lived near San Jose, CA, I came home to a tumbleweed in my driveway. The next spring I had a line of baby tumbleweed growing in my yard, showing me the exact path mama took. I quickly dug them all up by the root. Hopefully it was OK to put them in the "Yard Waste" can...
The first time I ever saw a tumbleweed was not in the American west but in Montreal, around oil refineries. We were working to eradicate vegetation around the places using pesticides (the 1970s). They were notoriously hard to kill requiring that every square inch to be covered otherwise they would survive. And they got HUGE, as big as a Volkswagen, as you said.
I was driving across the US on a road trip; Nevada, late at night. then, loads of tumbleweed…they are massive! i always imagined them to be football sized rather than the ones we saw that were hip to shoulder height and they really move too.
I live in Vegas. Let me tell you, that hitting one with your car is no picnic. That stuff gets into your internals everywhere. And its no fun to have to dislodge from underneath your car. Even had to replace a hose.
Wow! I have lived my whole life in Texas and have seen many a tumbleweed rumble around in west Texas. I always thought they were just Mesquite bushes that had died and become uprooted (not enough water in some areas for them to grow into Mesquite trees). Thank you for sharing this!
When I was a kid I lived in Lubbock Texas. Whenever there was wind the tumbleweeds would roll through the neighborhood. One of our neighbors had a carport that faced into the prevailing wind and it always filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling with tumbleweeds. Another neighbor, at Christmas time, would collect tumbleweeds, create a cone shaped pile of them in the living room, flock and decorate them as a Christmas tree.
I lived in a suburb outside of Denver, Colorado for a few years. It was always a trip to see tumbleweeds rolling through the neighborhood of perfectly manicured lawns and lawn ornaments. After a particularly windy day you could find a pile of tumbleweeds stacked up against a fence.
I am American, raised up north. I always thought tumbleweeds were a Hollywood make believe. Then I visited Texas, saw one for myself. It was an exciting moment on a very long drive.
I remember when I lived in Bakersfield California during the early 2000s when we found the front door completely blocked by tumble weeds one morning after a big wind storm.
I grew up in El Paso Texas. Every year my brother makes a "Snowman and Snow Woman" out of tumbleweeds, complete with strings of lights a pipe, cape and kerchief, etc. People often stop and take photographs. My Dad who grew up in the Panhandle of Texas, said they used to make their Christmas trees out of Tumbleweeds when he was growing up.
Damn, I had no idea tumbleweeds had so much too them. Damn good and surprising video. Kudos, Simon. Good stuff.
My backyard here in Tucson grew tumbleweeds and it was just a small area. Three large tumbleweeds eventually blew over the fence. I also had night blooming flowers. I love Tucson.
I lived in the city of Richland, WA in a neighborhood that was the first human settlement downwind of Hanford, 30 miles of uninhabited mostly flat land filled with tumbleweeds. Driving Highway 240 is always a guaranteed tumbleweed hit, you don't want to swerve - just plow through. I once had my front door blocked by a mass of tumbleweeds after a windstorm.
I grew up in a small West Texas town named Lamesa. We dealt with tumbleweeds. The fence rows would accumulate them. Over time, the fence rows would be covered in them, and sand, since the tumbleweeds acted as a barrier to the sand as it was blown through in sandstorms. The result was that the fence rows would eventually be long rows of soil rising above the surrounding landscape. There are fences on top of fences out there due to this. It was easier to build new fences above the old rather than dig the old ones out.
Another anecdote is that one year, due to their prevalence, my parents decided to clump several tumbleweeds together to look like a Christmas tree and decorate them for Christmas.
The Hairry Paddock plant, I remember those blowing around the playground at my elementary school. And I'm from California so that's so odd.
I’m from West Texas and I remember walking home after school trying to avoid being hit by tumbleweeds on windy days.
Hurts like hell.
When they are “tumbling” they make a very distinctive sound. It was terrifying to find yourself being “chased” by these things.
I'm also in south eastern Arizona, and the damned things are ever present in my area. They actually start growing late winter and by the time the rainy (monsoon) season is over they can literally be as big as a VW Bug! I cant stand the messy, prickly ugly things!
For almost 10 years now, I have been spraying glyphosate on every tumbleweed plant I find on my property as well as every open area around me. It has helped tremendously!
Well covered. I grew up in the western part of Texas and these things were all over the place. Very memorably one of the worst grass fires in the county (well, the worst I knew about for that time, this would've been the mid-1980s) was caused by tumbleweeds that, well, tumbled right through someone's trash fire (that they shouldn't have had anyway, it being high summer in the middle of one of the driest parts of west Texas). It took the Midland fire department an entire day to get the blaze under control, and we could see the fire from our apartment. Scary stuff.
Tumbleweeds and dirt devils were our friends growing up! 😊 We grew up in Alamogordo, New Mexico! Long time ago! Haha
I lived outside Alamogordo for a couple of years stationed at Holloman AFB and remember the tumbleweeds!! I once accidentally hit on on the highway to El Paso and it seemed to explode into pieces, haha 😄
@@k8tina that's awesome! 🤣
Tumbleweeds are pretty common in Eastern WA state except in the north-east corner near Spokane. Some roads have short fences installed by farmers to keep cows on their land but both the Tumbleweeds and Cows find their way on to the road. The biggest issue is a small Tumbleweed that a large truck or wind blows airborne if you stop on the side of the road I would not want to be hit with that! A good reason to pull off the road on to side roads or farming roads, to get out of the car, it's also safer in general.
We chased tumbleweeds in my Colorado childhood. And every year at Christmas we kids would find the biggest roundest one we could and decorate it with a flock of clip-on bird ornaments. It was beautiful.
Growing up in Phoenix there were empty fields to the west of our house. Tumbleweeds would build up on the side of the house in the monsoon season when the winds would primarily blow from the west.
I lived in Manitoba as a kid, the seasons were hellish heat with golf ball sized hail, dust storms and tumbleweed, air so cold your lungs will freeze if you are out too long for 7 months and the Assiniboine river flooding.
There is a video of CGP Grey getting his car bogged down by tumbleweeds while visiting an abandoned location. Others may not find it as funny, but it made me laugh so hard thinking, "Defeated by tumbleweeds, of all things!"
I could watch your videos all day. I'm a fairly curious gal, but I never thought learning about tumbleweeds interesting. Thanks for proving me wrong! Keep up the awesome work!
Here in Albuquerque, we have a snowman made out of 3 giant tumbleweeds that is installed just off the freeway every year. The tumbleweed is huge (at least 6 feet in diameter). I had a friend move to New Mexico from Maryland that was blown away seeing her first tumbleweed. She thought they were just a movie thing!
Recently moved to the Southwest of the US and we have tumbleweeds aplenty. One of my neighbors in fact made a Christmas tree out of them. My late Grandpa was every bit the Oklahoman cowboy stereotype in life. So seeing these tumbleweeds makes me smile, because they remind me of the old Westerns that my Grandpa loved to watch.
The whole time you were talking about tumble weeds piling up, I was thinking about one of the times I was trucking through the Vantage, Washington area on 240, and I turned onto 24 to see massive pile of tumble weeds blocking the road. It was 2019 I believe. I blasted through it in my Peterbuilt 379, which has a long, flat fronted hood. Must have been over 5 feet deep where I went through and hundreds of feet long. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. It was scary and beautiful!
I live on the high plains of the US. Several years ago we had a "bumper crop" of tumbleweeds! Not only did they trap some nearby people in farmhouses, but they organically formed a "wall" in town - which required excavating equipment to remove. Then there was the question of what to do with them then.
Alas though, there is one use for some of them. I went to a Christmas event, where there were large Christmas trees decorated with large, undamaged tumbleweeds spray painted red, green, or white, then hung by a string tied around the central stem. They were certainly pretty.
I didn't know they were edible though.