Extreme Winds In Huge Area Of Plains; In Vermont, Wet Weather Coming

Tractor trailer truck blown off the road in South Dakota. 
Photo via Twitter @robibrose

 I'm incredibly impressed with the widespread wind storm affecting the northern and central Plains of the United States and southern Canada.  

I don't think I can recall a single storm causing wind gusts over 70 mph hitting such a wide area.

The places that had such high wind gusts - or are about to - comprise more than half of Montana, the western half of the Dakotas, western Nebraska and Kansas, much of eastern Wyoming,  northeastern Colorado, and parts of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada.

Highest wind gust included 105 mph near  F.E. Warren Air Force Base just outside Cheyenne, Wyoming;  89 mph at the National Weather Service office in Cheyenne; 95 mph in Judith Peak, Montana and 93 mph in Williston, North Dakota.

Record high wind gusts for January were set in Helena, Montana (80 mph); Havre, Montana (78 mph) and Great Falls, Montana (76 mph).

The storm responsible for this is now collecting moisture, meaning a full-blown blizzard is just now being unleashed in the western half of Iowa, southwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota.  Travel is essentially banned as snow is being propelled by wind gusts of 60 mph or higher. 

Up in Saskatchewan, people in rural areas who lost power in the high winds last night were told restoration efforts wouldn't start until today because winds were too strong last night.  People in the Regina areas were stranded on snow-blasted highways as it was too rough to send much help. 

The other day, I talked about the large number of storms that cost $1 billion or more in damage.  This one won't cause that much damage, I believe, only because of its location. Most of the area is sparsely populated, with not that many trees to topple. 

Imagine if this same storm struck the congested, forested East Coast.

This same storm or at least incarnation of it, is going to hit Vermont and the rest of New England, but at least we won't have the extreme winds with it. 

At this point, we're still looking at a new low pressure area forming along the parent storm's cold front. That one will move northward over New England. 

Since yesterday, trends have been indicating this new storm will take a more westward track than originally forecast, probably moving northward right over Vermont. 

That means - if the forecast holds - that we will get mostly rain in the Green Mountain State.  Even in the mountains.  

Since temperatures will be marginal, there's still hope the predictions could shift just a bit and bring us more snow, but I wouldn't count on it. 

Rain and melted snow totals will be about a half inch in the north to up to 1.5 inches in favored places in southern Vermont.  This would be enough to make rivers rise some, but not enough to cause any real flooding. 

As noted, we'll escape the strong, damaging winds that hit such a huge area of the Plains and Midwest. There could be strong winds gusting to 50 to 70 mph way up on the tip top of the peaks, but those won't make it down here, to where most of us live. 

We'll have gusty northwest winds amid snow showers on Sunday, but the winds won't be strong enough to cause any notable damage. 

Some snow will come Saturday night and occasionally through the upcoming week.  Accumulations won't amount to much except on the mountain peaks and western slopes, which could pick up a few inches. Temperatures will settle back to near normal readings for Jauary. 

Here's the wind blowing big tanks around near Great Falls, Montana: