Yep- definitely getting a little breezy out-- Wind is gusting around 50 mph here right now...I just got back from loading a load of calves out at the feedlot- and wasn't sure if it wouldn't blow me off the roads that are slick from the drifting little bit of snow we got last night....Sure glad I'm not driving the semi thats headed to Minnesota :roll:
But after reading this article in todays Gazette I guess I have nothing to complain about........
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Wind record broken
By ERIC NEWHOUSE and MIKE BABCOCK Tribune Staff Editors
Montana's wind record was blown away this week.
A wind gauge on Snowslip Mountain, just east of the Continental Divide along Highway 2, clocked a gust of 164 mph Wednesday.
That's akin to a hurricane. A category 5 storm carries sustained winds of more than 155 mph.
And it blew away the old state record of 143 mph, set at the Miller Colony just north of Choteau in 2002.
At Logan Pass on Wednesday, winds gusted to 133 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Friday's winds were not quite as strong — 84 mph in Cut Bank and 80 in Great Falls — but still strong enough blow a truck off the highway and halt the Amtrak trains.
The storm knocked out electrical power in much of western and central Montana. Students gathered in the field house at Great Falls High to wait for the lights to come on in their classrooms, Northwestern
Energy crews scrambled to replace broken off utility poles, and power was still out in some parts of the state.
"Early this morning, we had a frontal boundary pass through with some incredible wind speeds," said Jerome Saucier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls.
It was a fast moving shot of high winds, heavy rain, some ice pellets and a stroke of lightning or two," he said. "It was quite unstable and pushing through very fast."
Near the wind farm at Harlowton, a semi was blown over early this morning, according to a dispatcher for the Montana Highway Patrol.
The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 44 mph with gusts up to 52 in Great Falls on Friday, but KRTV clocked an 80 mph wind gust.
"Trucks are moving today, but very slowly," said Randy Roth of the Flying J Truck Stop.
"However, there are a lot of campers who just said the heck with it — we're staying put," he added.
One of Montana's windier spots Friday was Cut Bank, where sustained winds were 63 mph and gusts hit 84.
"We've had lots of trees down in yards, and a lot of street signs and road signs are down, too," said Glacier County Sheriff's Dispatcher Lana Leishman.
"And I know there are a lot of Christmas decorations that have been blown away," she added.
One elderly woman was blown over, banged her head, and was taken by ambulance to the Cut Bank hospital, she said.
"And another elderly gentleman in Browning was blown down and couldn't get back up," said Leishman. "We had to call tribal law enforcement to help him.
"But it got rid of all the ice on our roads," she added.
At the Isaac Walton Inn in Essex, staff was still waiting for the morning Amtrak at mid-afternoon.
"They had to stop all the trains on the east side of the Divide because of the wind," said Sara Hudson.
An Amtrak spokesman in Shelby confirmed the morning train was running four to five hours late Friday, while the afternoon train was an hour or two behind schedule.
Wind gusted up to 85 mph at McDonald Pass, 82 mph in Livingston, 70 mph at both Two Medicine and Heart Butte and 74 mph in Browning, Saucier said.
Northwestern Energy spokesman Tom Glanzer said the storm in Montana reached from the western edge of the state to Great Falls, south through Helena, Deer Lodge, Butte and Anaconda and north to the Havre-Chester area.
In all, Northwestern Energy received 3,700 calls from customers reporting power outages or utility poles on the ground. The bulk of the calls were in Missoula, Hamilton, Anaconda, Deer Lodge, Helena and Great Falls.
As of late afternoon Friday, scattered power outages continued in the Havre, Chester and Dutton areas. Power outages also were reported in the Belt, Valier and Dutton areas.
In the Great Falls area, about 1,250 customers were without service for more than two hours and 13 utility poles in northcentral Montana went down.
Outages continued until late afternoon in the East Helena, White Sulphur Springs and Lincoln areas.
Glanzer said Northwestern has a mutual service agreement with most electric utilities serving the western United States, and the company has been asked to help restore power in the Vancouver, Wash., area.
"They are looking for help too, but it hit us at a rough time," Glanzer said. "If we feel we are solid in our Montana operations, we could run crews over to that area. The whole northwest part of the nation needs help right now."
Most of the outages occurred about 5:30 a.m. on Friday but another round of outages came along at about 8:45 a.m. Glanzer said the interruptions in electrical service all are weather related and were caused by wind, rain or snow. He was unable to say how many customers were affected.
Power went off in central Great Falls about 5:40 a.m. so lights were out at Great Falls High, Paris Gibson, Lincoln and Holy Spirit schools.
When students began arriving before dawn at Great Falls High, they were ushered to the field house on the south campus, where there was electricity.
Dick Kuntz, the assistant superintendent of Great Falls schools, said teachers and their students remained there until it was light enough to use classrooms.
"As the kids arrived, we tried to get them into a safe environment. We got them into the bleachers so we could supervise them and make sure they were safe. Our contacts at the power company kept telling us it would be up in a half hour.
"We didn't get power restored until about 11 a.m. so we basically sheltered the kids, tried to keep them safe for the first three hours. By that time, it was lunch, and we got all the kids and staff fed by 11:45 a.m., and then we had regular schedule the rest of the day."
Kuntz cited two reasons for not sending the high school students home: "First and foremost is safety. We feel they are safe at school. We had no way to contact parents and no way to escort kids who didn't drive. Secondly, the power company kept assuring us it would be half an hour."
"It takes a lot for us to close schools," said Superintendent Bryan Dunn. "Once school starts, to send home means that many will go home to empty houses, front and back doors that are locked and to unsupervised homes. We think it is better to keep them at school, even if there is a problem, where it is safer than to be on the streets.
"It would take a lot for us to send them home," he said. "The school itself would have to be unsafe."
As soon as power was restored, all of the schools security systems and alarm systems powered up and the alarms went off.
"We had lots of bells to signify that the power was back on. We got those settled and got communications with the staff. We had a few parents who came and got their kids but the vast majority stayed here, and we tried to get on the best we could."
Kuntz said it would take several days before the absenteeism figures are computed since teachers took roll by paper and pencil. In all, 1,800 students attend Great Falls High.
"You kind of get through it and wait for the power to come on but 1,800 kids without instruction makes for a long morning," Kuntz said.
While traffic signals were dead for several blocks along 10th Avenue South, police reported no problems with traffic.
Great Falls Police Sgt. John Schaffer, said there were no problems with 10th Avenue South.
"I haven't heard of any other problems that have caused us any major issues," Schaffer said.