The Black Vault

Crazy wind events in numbers too numerous these days. I'm near to being a senior citizen, weather has always been a favorite hobby of mine, but never in 30 plus years of watching the weather have I ever seen so much wind.

Sure it blows during storms, cold fronts, hurricanes ETC. But not for days on end, and never at 25 mph sustained with gusts up to 40.... Something is afoot, what it may be is anyone's guess. One can hope it's all due to a normal cycle of climatic events, those strung out over thousands of years, but damn this is crazy stuff.

Over the week-end they closed Breckenridge for the first time ever due to high winds. Despite it blowing up to 100-120 on the mountain some people were still upset at not being allowed to ski................Maybe that is part of the problem, maybe the wind God is hoping to cull a few fools from the herd.........

Some people will never get it...I find that both amazing as well as depressing.

Here's a brave man who fell to a sad freak accident.

CO driver killed by branch steered car to safety

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado man who was killed when a 3-foot tree branch flew through his windshield and impaled him in the chest was able to steer the car to safety before losing consciousness.

The wife of 61-year-old James Baker-Jarvis told the Daily Camera (http://goo.gl/WsaHg ) that her husband was able to pull the Subaru Outback over to the roadside, saving her from any injury. Baker-Jarvis died later at a hospital.

Saturday's incident north of Boulder came as high winds swept through the Northern Rockies, toppling two semis, forcing shutdowns along long stretches of highways and causing some 19,000 power failures throughout Colorado.

In Wyoming, two people were injured Saturday when debris blew off the roof of a Cheyenne Sam's Club store. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle (http://goo.gl/168R4 ) reports that at least five other people were treated at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center for wind-related injuries.

None of the Wyoming injuries was considered life-threatening. The winds reached gusts of 76 mph in Cheyenne, said Tim Trudel, a forecaster for the National Weather Service.

High winds are nothing new in the Mountains and high plains, it's their frequency that has people asking questions in regard to what is really going on.

http://news.yahoo.com/co-driver-killed- ... 27624.html

More.>>>>>>>>

Fierce winds in Colorado snarl highways

A jet stream brought winds fierce enough to turn driving into a white-knuckle experience Thursday, forcing trucks off Interstate 25 at the Wyoming border and gusting to 102 mph in Colorado.

It will get going again this evening, pounding the northeastern part of the state with gusts to 60 mph overnight and into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Gusts topped out at 102 mph southeast of Pinecliffe in Jefferson County at 2:20 a.m. Thursday, said Eric Thaler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder. A peak gust of 79.5 mph was recorded at 9:20 a.m. at the National Wind Technology Center near Boulder.

The high-wind warning expired at 5 p.m., but the winds didn't get the message.

About 7:30 p.m., three empty cargo trailers were overturned by wind gusts estimated at more than 100 mph at Table Mesa Parkway and 45th Drive northeast of Golden, said Fairmount fire Lt. Chad Bassett.

Winds of 60 and 70 mph were common throughout the region Thursday, Thaler said.

Crazy stuff.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19643141

Cole

Santa Ana wind conditions are nothing new to southern california, but the last ones a few weeks ago were the worse in many years. Not sure it it broke records, but we had a lot of damage in the southland.

As far as you being close to senior citizen, 55 is the borderline for many places using the senior menu. I think you qualify, old timer.

I see where some in the media are calling the driver a hero because he supposedly swerved to save his wife once he saw the falling-blowing branch.

Yep just like in the movies-------------no way it could just be an accident due to poor judgement, lack of reflex skilz, and crazy wind.............always some clown embellishing things in an attempt to gain attention or worse, make money.

If the conditions were that bad ( they must have been ) then what were they doing out and about in the first place?..................

Just a terrible accident, something that can happen to anyone unaware and simply not paying attention to the immediate environment.

Cole

We will just have to do what humans do..hopefully, adapt and hopefully,survive
Let's go buy some kites and have fun with it

Not to oversimplify and I could be wrong but it sounds like the jetstream--perhaps for the first time in our lifetimes, is settling right over Colorado and just sitting there.

The picture may change with time but the one I'm posting which is current, shows the jet stream taking a very sharp dive southward, right through Colorado.

"The Coming Globla Superstorm" is here and we will simply have ot adapt and survive...or not..then there's hwatever the F 2012 brings

F it..scary..but exciting, no?
le'ts hope if we die..it's quick

This week our weather has been weather to kill for, in January. I mean perfect blue sky, 80 degrees, no winds. We spend 2 days down in Indio area, and it was post card perfect. For California, this is our normal weather, and why we are called Sunny California. Perfect for a ride out to the desert, or up the coast.

This weather in insane, we usually have several inches of snow by now, lots of cold, so far, nothing..........

This may not bode well for February and March, maybe a severe cold snap that kills fruit trees............something amiss...............that's for certain.

The wind is something I just can't grasp------------sure I know full well how it works, how it's formed, and how strong it can be. This wind of today is different......a lot more frequent, a lot stronger, and way way too pronounced.

I can't ever remember so many wind related events where the wind speeds were so high...............usually 25-35 with gusts to 40 were common place, even if only ever so often....................Now I can recall at least 4 or 5 events this past year where simple storm complexes produced wind gust fronts of 60-80 plus... The last in Indy that killed people when that stage collapsed.

These past two months we've had three such wind events where the wind blew for two straight days at sustained 25-35 mph with gusts over 40......... No storms anywhere close, just wind from the convergence zone between high and low pressure..............It's nuts!!

Cole

If 55 is the beginning of 'senior citizenry' I qualify. Bring on the discounts!

We are getting our first real snow today. Normally we would have a foot or two on the ground at least before now.
Its also been unusually warm , yesterday it went above zero Celcius. That is extremely rare in the beginning of Jan. and even rarer still is that it has been above average here since Sept. The winter jet stream over Canada has stayed well to the north whereas normally it sits pretty much along the Can/USA border and this is what has kept our temps high. Thius week, out west in southern Alberta they had grass fires that claimed 4 homes. 120 Km/H wind gusts did not help.

If we don't get snow soon our lakes will be mere puddles this spring.

Ah MR. Hess, good to see you're still kickin. Where ya been my Canadian Friend?

I envy your locale, I've always been a four seasons man myself, although I'm sure your summers are sometimes a two month thing Still, good to see ya again, hope you and yours are well.

Yes I read a bit on this seasons Jet-------------has something to do with the very unseasonably cold weather in the Arctic. The air is just too cold therefor too heavy, and there's a block in the upper levels of the atmosphere which is keeping the cold air bottled up way father north than usual...

I too hope it changes sooner as opposed to later............We don't need any 2 foot snows in March, or temps in the teens in late March, early April......

The pattern will eventually change, and when it does someone is gonna get pounded. I just hope it's not a power losing deal...........had enough of that these past two seasons.

be well,

Cole