101 MPH Wind Gust Recorded In Freemont County

Fremont County, WY had a heck of a gust Wednesday night, 11/17/23.

County 10 meteorologist Dave Lipson noticed that the lower Red Canyon area recorded a 101 MPH wind gust late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

That's a gust, not sustained winds.

That might knock you down.

The two 101 MPH gusts occurred between 12:20 and 12:36 AM.

There were a series of 90 MPH gusts around the same time.

Wind gusts like this are worth noting, but never uncommon in a place like Wyoming.

Our mountains have gaps and all of that air pressure needs to go somewhere.

Wyoming is the number 1 state for vehicle blowovers.

Air pressure blowing through a mountain gap is like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose. A high-pressure burst will come out the other end.

According to the US National Weather Service Riverton Wyoming, South Pass at Red Canyon had wind speeds recorded at 98 miles per hour back in March.

To give you an idea of how strong that is, hurricane-force winds at over 74 miles per hour.

The highest recorded wind speed in Wyoming was 128 miles per hour set back in April 2022, in Clark.

We also need to put the power of this kind of wind in perspective.

A 60mph wind down at sea level feels a lot worse than a 60mph wind up here in Wyoming.

That's because there is a lot more air pressure way down at sea level. That's why winds caused by hurricanes do more damage down there than the same-speed winds up here.

Also, we have not been keeping accurate wind records for very long. So we will never know how fast the wind may have been in Wyoming in the past.