Mar 30 2009
Better Than Being Tossed About by a Tornado
High wind speeds do not necessarily have to occur with tornadoes and hurricanes, or even with strong thunderstorms. Just have a look at Mount Washington in northern New Hampshire, home of the world’s worst weather – they have many days where the wind speeds will exceed hurricane forces, yet there is no hurricane taking place on the mountain.
Our “This Day in Weather History” focuses on a strong wind event that was not associated with any kind of storm. The title given to this event is Probably better than being tossed about by a tornado, and it took place on this day in 1984. Canyon winds howled across Northern Utah and an unofficial report in Farmington, Utah, registered a gust at 72 miles per hour. It was reported that a woman in Ogden, Utah was blown to the ground by the high winds, her knee was broken. Winds are unpredictable and can cause damage in and out of storms.
It is amazing how strong winds can get. That poor woman, I cannot imagine being hit that hard by wind to be break my knee.
I’ve had days that seemed like that; back at my college, we’d occasionally get really high-wind days, and I remember a few times when I’d wait in the buildings because the wind was making that demon-teakettle noise that my stepmother (who had lived in a hurricane-prone zone) had identified to me as a sign of oncoming disaster-weather.
And then there was that one windstorm in Tacoma in early December of 2006. Nothing quite like a wind-based power outage and a bunch of fallen trees to make finals interesting.
Hello and thanks for stopping by! FishHawk - Mount Washington is home to a weather observatory and they maintain a site, I think you would find it interesting to learn more about the mountain. Three storm tracks converge upon the summit of Mount Washington. The website is: www.mountwashington.org
cindy23 - The description did not go into specifics of what caused the woman to break her knee - she must have fallen on something, or something fell on her.
ravyn - wind does strange and unpredictable things. Where did you go to college - mid west states where it is flat?
Good to know
Thanks-You were my first commenter yesterday
Having huddled down through Hurricane Ike, I can tell you wind can be very very scary.