Friday, December 2, 2011

Above 140 mph Gusts hit Sierra Crest Mountain Ridge

To make some sense of this, Winds of the same force as Hurricane Katrina hit mountains in California which meant that gusts of above 90 mph hit places like Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre and even in Santa Barbara there were winds of over 70 mph. Though Friday night the gusts are expected to be over 65 mph in places like Pasadena it will be nothing like the tree topling, house destroying damage of Hurricane Katrina like winds of the previous night. Destructive winds hit everywhere from Montana to Utah, Colorado Nevada, Arizona and California as they blew out into the Pacific Ocean. I watched a weather map in motion of Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California last night and the storm was headed north and spiraling west and south because of the very unusual winds at this force. Though it is normal for Santana winds to blow this time of year very seldom do they  go above about 60 or 70 mph.

And the above 100 mph winds weren't just in California: Here is a quote:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/story/2011-12-02/western-wind-storm-santa-anas-california/51582864/1
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – Several overturned semis on a Utah highway. Hundreds of thousands without power in California. A wind gust reaching 123-mph in Colorado. end quote.


next quote about 140 mph wind gusts:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/02/us/california-winds/index.html?iref=allsearch
begin quote:

Winds on par with those of a Category 4 hurricane in higher elevations downed hundreds of power lines southern California this week, leaving more than 200,000 customers without power, but electricity providers have made significant progress restoring power to customers.
Gusts stronger than 140 mph were measured on the Sierra Crest mountain ridge, according to the National Weather Service. They were not as strong in lower-lying areas, but these also were hit hard by the Santa Ana winds.
Widespread damage in southwestern California led Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich to issue a state of emergency "to ensure that state and federal financial resources are available to serve county residents impacted by the windstorms." end quote.

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