Boy, has it been breezy around here.
The Brick had to drive schoolbus yesterday, but came home early -- they'd cancelled transportation in the afternoon. Why? Because winds were so high here that anything with a high profile literally could not drive on the highway without the danger of tipping over.
More than 100 semis were stranded near Castle Rock (where we live, just off I-25) for hours.
In case you're wondering, Interstate 25 is the 'backbone' for the Front Range in Colorado. It zips straight down the state, following the mountains from the buffalo marker in Wyoming to Durango in the south. Castle Rock is halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs, otherwise known as 'The Springs.'
It was even worse further south:
*At least 16 semis were overturned during the day. (By next day, the count was past 30.)
*30 schoolbusses in the lot for the Harrison school district, south of the Springs, had their windows on one side shattered out last night. Smashed from a windgust. (Thankfully it was late, after school was done.)
*One windgust was measured in Cheyenne Mountain at 101 mph.** Normally, though, we made do with less --
*Palmer Lake (where the Brick drives schoolbus) and Monument Hill were only getting 70-90 mph gusts.
*Based on what I felt, Castle Rock got even less. We were just getting paltry 60 mph or so.
Not to mention your usual mayhem caused by wind: downed trees, ripped-off- shingles and roofs, and flying objects. Our flue pipe literally juggled itself loose from the woodstove, and was banging around. ("I knew I should have wired that down," mused The Brick.)
The winds came back tonight for a while, but all's quiet now. Although we often get windy periods, in more than 30 years of living in Colorado, we have never seen the highway closed to semis -- or schoolbusses drydocked, so to speak, because of wind.
Apparently it happened in Wyoming, too. This was also along I-25:
Next question: Will it start up again?
**Here's a more comprehensive list of top windspeeds on 1-9-17. By the way, windspeeds like this compare to a Level Two hurricane -- or stronger.
Ever been to any of these places?
Cheyenne Mountain Air Station - 101 mph
Air Force Academy - 78 mph
Manitou Springs - 99 mph
Colorado Springs Airport - 80 mph
Pueblo - 62 mph
Colorado City - 97 mph
Fountain - 66 mph
Rampart Reservoir - 61 mph
North Colorado Springs - 59 mph
Pikes Peak - 92 mph
Monarch Pass - 54 mph
Monument/Palmer Lake - 70 mph
San Isabel - 54 mph
Falcon - 58 mph
Black Forest - 50 mph
Walsenburg - 66 mph
Westcliffe - 47 mph
Buena Vista - 41 mph
Fort Carson - 78 mph
Florence - 47 mph
Aguilar - 68 mph
Wolf Creek Pass - 43 mph
La Veta Pass - 42 mph
Trinidad - 74 mph
1 comment:
Yep. It was bad.
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