High Wyoming Winds Topple Dumpster Down Street

Every year at about this time a dumpster in Chugwater, Wyoming decides to take a walk through town.

Well, not exactly true.

Every year at about this time high winds blow through the narrow gap that is Chugwater Wyoming.

That narrow gap causes the winds to increase up to 80-plus miles an hour.

A neighborhood dumpster, normally heavy enough to withstand the winds, tumbles down the road.

Watch the video below by Chugwater Mayor Josh Hopkins.

Think about trying to move that dumpster yourself.

Even just tipping it over yourself.

That gives you an idea of how harsh those winds are when they get squeezed through the Chugwater gap.

Now imagine a truck on the highway being hit by those crosswinds, or an RV.

The winds in Wyoming are increased, more than most states, by our mountains, canyons, and gaps.

This causes a "Venturi effect."

The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a moving fluid speeds up as it flows from one section of a pipe to a smaller section.

That pressure has to go somewhere and it makes it through the narrow gap by speeding up.

The Venturi effect is named after its discoverer, the Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi, and first published in 1797.

Chugwater, Wyoming is located down by a river in a narrow canyon that was carved by that river.

High winds have to twist their way through that narrow gap, and you can see here how much those winds speed up when they do.