This Sunday was rather windy, possibly even record breaking in the Sierra. Wind gusts were only in the upper 30’s for the valley, but well over 100mph on the western slopes of the Sierra. Kirkwood Mountain even reported a gust of 209mph at 7:45am in the morning Sunday. If this report is confirmed it would be the strongest wind gust ever reported in California. The old record was 199mph at Alpine Meadows a few years ago. With that said the National Weather Service in Sacramento is saying this could be a false reading because the relative humidity seems too high and the station has been overdoing wind gusts lately. Mammoth Mountain and Alpine Summit also clocked gusts over 100mph Sunday. The chart below is from the National Weather Service.
The flow is coming out of the northeast wrapping around an area of low pressure. The low is now in Southern Nevada and we’re getting the northeast wind on the backside of it. While it is not unheard of for Sierra ridgetops to reach 100mph what is rare is for northeast winds to be that strong. The tree’s root systems up in the mountains don’t handle an east wind as well as a west wind. An east wind is the reverse of what usually happens. Usually the Truckee Meadows gets down sloping winds, but with easterly flow it’s the other way around.
The wind also makes it feel much colder. This is called the wind chill. It felt like the teens today in Tahoe opposed to the mid 20’s. Wind gusts were in the 50’s up at the lake. It was also windy enough in Dayton to blow tumbleweeds all over the place. This picture was taken from Deborah LaCour. Wind gusts were in the 30’s there.
The good news is that wind speeds will slowly relax tonight. It will still be gusting over 50mph in the Sierra tonight, but they’ll be much lighter Monday. If you want to go skiing Monday afternoon gusts will be around 30mph. Have a great week.
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