Posted on 09/08/2020 8:00:54 AM PDT by Peter ODonnell
Watch out if you're in CA or AZ -- the situation I'm about to describe has already developed in NV and UT after moving down through states further north on Labor Day.
An intense low over Colorado has drawn in strong northeast winds that have recently blasted their way across most of Nevada and Utah. At Las Vegas, gusts to 50 mph were recorded in the past hour. At St George UT, winds changed from southerly 20 mph to northerly 30 mph in one hour.
These winds are heading south and will reach most of Arizona at various times later today, creating hazards on the roads especially for high-sided vehicles. In some places, blowing dust has been a problem and major highways have been closed down. This occurred as early as Monday mid-day in eastern WA on the I-90.
Power failures have also been reported mainly in forested areas due to tree branches coming down onto lines.
The onset of this windy weather is rapid to instantaneous giving drivers of high-sided vehicles little warning of the hazards.
For California, it's a complicated situation, the pressure gradient will increase gradually this morning over the Sierra Nevada and some parts of the central valley may be subjected to strong winds from directions ranging from north to east-southeast depending on location and terrain.
If you're in that region, expect some dangerous fire behavior as these shifting and increasing winds could cause fires to spread faster than crews can respond. The chances of increasing power blackouts will obviously increase from the current levels too.
This is not going to be a classic Santa Ana wind that sweeps through all regions, it looks like the dynamics may stall out leaving some regions closer to the coast out of the strong wind situation, so some may find they have forecasts of strong winds that either don't materialize or the directions end up highly variable as strong sea breezes are likely to be pulled into the shifting heat trough that is being pushed west by the pressure gradient change over the Sierra Nevada.
Getting back to the Arizona situation, I would expect these strong winds (which have already passed the I-40) to reach Phoenix and the Gila valley around mid-day, and Tucson mid-afternoon. Some mountain thunderstorms are possible with the cold front too.
Further east, this low has drawn in very cold air from central Canada and rain is changing to snow at Denver and along the Front Range. Heavy snowfalls are likely at higher elevations in that region, a cold rain will be the outcome east of the foothills. Heavy snow has already hit some parts of Wyoming.
This storm is not going to move out of the region very quickly, so its effects further east into the central plains will be slow to develop. If anything, the motion of the low is southwesterly for today and part of tomorrow, with a twin-centered structure over central and western Colorado into eastern Utah. Eventually the low will begin to weaken and these strong winds will moderate than stop altogether over the next 2-3 days but expect a 36-48 hour period of strong winds once they do set in.
The good news is that the winds may clear out the smoke but if some idiots start new fires were screwed. C’mon winter!
Watched a Dutchsinse report this morning. Lots of small fires starting in Washington state.
Adding a bellows to the fires.
Getting some much needed rain here in Mesa County (western CO). First significant rainfall in many weeks. Temperatures have dropped with snow expected in the higher elevations.
Warming trend expected by end of week.
Ho-hum. We have winds that strong on a regular basis.
in Salt Lake City the winds have been in excess of 75mph. We just lost a very large and beautiful old chestnut tree in our front yard. It’s now resting comfortably on top of our newly installed sunroom. My wife is in the kitchen fixing margaritas. It’s 10am.
High winds tore at power lines which sparked and caused brush fires all over the area. Yesterday at rush hour they had to close three local freeways due to the quick spreading fires:
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/sr-410-closed-near-sumner-due-wildfire/YNJBHKWPEFCKLESBMPX46GQCMI/
In Colorado we get 80mph many years (Chinooks), mainly on the front range though the far west can get big winds also.
This morning we had some 30mph, now no wind and it’s raining on the fires which is really good, but smoky.
I’ve been wondering if Antifa would start wildfires. Maybe they are.
The way you wrote sounds like the opening paragraph in a crime novel. I liked it.
The way you wrote sounds like the opening paragraph in a crime novel. I liked it.
They would not be the only group to think of this, in Canada we have suspected that the big Fort Mac fire in the spring a few years back had an arsonist origin, it was much earlier than the usual timing and certainly no possibility of lightning. Other groups who might conceivably start fires include Islamist terrorists, Chinese saboteurs, anarchists broadly speaking (beyond Antifa) and people looking for work as forest fire crew members. That last one has certainly happened in the recent past on more than one occasion.
Then if we add jerkoffs who toss butts out of their moving vehicles in tinder dry forests, vehicles parked on dry grass and the operators don’t notice they started a fire, etc, it’s a wonder the whole country hasn’t burned down.
This cold front is still coming for Phoenix area, a wave developed around Prescott holding up the timing by 1-2 hours, expect it to get very windy by afternoon rush hour with scattered thunderstorms there, a line of them extends through east central AZ with a few pop up tops showing now in the north Gila valley. It could get quite dusty between cells.
I can see tremendous amounts of smoke on visible satellite imagery heading south-southwest from fires east of Redding, spreading out over the northern Central Valley. So far it hasn’t gotten too windy in the valley, some reports of NNW 30-40 mph around Sacramento. Other areas have remained fairly calm, thinking the outflow will begin soon and as with the Paradise situation the strong winds might hit this evening and into the overnight. Be prepared especially if you have active fires to your east through north.
It was quite the wind storm yesterday in the Columbia Basin in eastern Washington. It actually blew all of the smoke from the fires into the basin.
We had gust up to 50 with sustained winds in the mid 30’s all day yesterday until someone finally turned off the wind machine last night about 8
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