I have seen several trees blown over while being in the woods. Luckily none of them have been real close and near me enough to cause damage. LOL!
I have cut the front face or notch on a tree to fall, but it leaned the exact opposite the direction it was to fall, then did a slight back cut... and waited for the wind to do it's work. Yep!... the wind pushed the tree over in the opposite direction of the lean.
Weirdest story I heard was a guy was sitting on his front porch in the country. As he was sitting there, it was absolutely quiet and not a hint of wind. All of a sudden a large tree right in front of him started to fall on it's own! After some investigating, ants were eating away at the trunk which also had rotting roots!
iSnipe