This April Fools’ Day, the Washoe Valley winds are no joke.
As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, vehicles over nine feet tall are prohibited on Interstate 580 between Exit 24 (Mt. Rose Highway) and Exit 16 (Old U.S. 395) due to high winds. The same goes for U.S. 395 Alternate between Exit 16 and I-580 Exit 12 (Eastlake Boulevard).
Meg Ragonese with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) said its wind alert system automatically triggered right as the wind hit.
“We have weather stations, roadside weather stations along our interstates and highways across Nevada, including Washoe Valley,” she said. “When wind gusts reach between 35 to 50mph, depending on the stretch of highway, those signs automatically begin flashing, prohibiting high profile vehicles of nine feet or taller.”
Ideally, truck drivers see these flashing lights and get off the freeway, but some of them ignore the signs and end up on their side.
“When high profile vehicle drivers do travel through the prohibited area, we do find unfortunately, sometimes those vehicles do overturn,” Ragonese said. “This actually happened just last month in another windstorm that we had recently."
A semi-truck driving slow in the left lane is rarely a welcome sight. However, for trucks on I-580 South, it's actually the safe thing to do in these conditions.
“If you're traveling this direction, they're actually going to be on the fast lane so that they don't tip over into any cars that are driving next to them so that the wind’s coming this way, it's kind of opposite of the wind,” Ragonese said.
Winds generally blow west-to-east through the valley, so if semis are in the right lane heading south, they risk tipping over on top of other traffic. In the left lane, they'd just hit the median.
For other drivers, Ragonese recommends giving yourself extra time and extra space from other vehicles. And if you pass a semi, be ready for that sudden burst of wind.
Visit Nevada 511 for the latest information on wind alerts and other road conditions.
During high winds, NDOT's warning signs automatically get to work.
