{"id":4455,"date":"2012-01-02T05:19:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T12:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=4455"},"modified":"2012-01-02T05:19:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T12:19:21","slug":"national-weather-service-releases-summary-of-new-years-eve-windstorm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/colorado-weather\/national-weather-service-releases-summary-of-new-years-eve-windstorm\/","title":{"rendered":"National Weather Service releases summary of New Year’s Eve windstorm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A windstorm pummeled northeastern Colorado on New Year's Eve 2011.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northeastern Colorado closed out 2011 with pummeling high winds on New Year’s Eve.\u00a0 Wind gusts of tropical and hurricane storm strength slammed into the region causing damage and claiming one life.<\/p>\n

In the Denver metro area gusts approaching 50mph were common while areas in the foothills and mountains to the west and on the plains to the northeast saw much higher speeds.\u00a0 Here in Thornton we recorded a maximum gust of 44.9mph in the predawn hours.<\/p>\n

Following is a summary of the event from the National Weather Service<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Post-Storm Summary of the New Year’s Eve Windstorm<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fast moving upper level storm system, along with a deep low pressure system over Nebraska and high pressure building over Utah, combined to create a powerful windstorm across Northeast and North Central Colorado on December 31st. The high wind event began in the mountains after midnight Friday night, and then spread across the plains early Saturday morning. The height of the windstorm on the plains occurred around mid day when numerous gusts between 60 and 80 mph were reported.<\/p>\n

The strong winds produced damage to fences and some roofs, and also knocked down trees resulting in power outages to approximately 19,000 residents. Some trucks were also blown off the road, and 1 fatality occurred due to a flying tree limb on U.S. Highway 36 north of Boulder.<\/p>\n

Visibilities over the northeast corner of the state were also reduced significantly by a combination of blowing dust and blowing snow.<\/p>\n

The following is a list by county of maximum wind gusts associated with this powerful windstorm…<\/p>\n

Location Maximum Wind Gust<\/p>\n

Adams…
\nBennett 60 MPH
\nFront Range Airport 60 MPH<\/p>\n

Arapahoe…
\nDeer Trail 59 MPH
\nCentennial 55 MPH<\/p>\n

Boulder…
\n1 W Lyons 101 MPH
\n4 NW Boulder 84 MPH
\nBoulder 81 MPH
\nNCAR Mesa Lab 79 MPH
\nNorth Longmont 75 MPH
\nBoulder Municipal Airport 59 MPH
\n2 NNW Louisville 58 MPH<\/p>\n

Broomfield…
\nRocky Mountain Regional Airport 58 MPH<\/p>\n

Clear Creek…
\nBerthoud Pass 94 MPH<\/p>\n

Denver…
\nBuckley AFB 64 MPH
\nDenver International Airport 59 MPH<\/p>\n

Douglas…
\nCentennial Airport 55 MPH
\n10 SSE Castle Rock 52 MPH
\nHighlands Ranch 50 MPH<\/p>\n

Elbert…
\n10 E Parker 67 MPH
\nElizabeth 55 MPH<\/p>\n

Grand…
\nBerthoud Pass 94 MPH
\n11 N Kremmling 80 MPH
\n9 S Fraser 80 MPH<\/p>\n

Jefferson…
\n3 SSE Pinecliffe 111 MPH
\n3 S Golden 86 MPH
\nHighway 72 and 93 Junction 79 MPH
\nNational Wind Technology Center 77 MPH
\n3 NNW Morrison 76 MPH
\n4 S Rocky Flats 73 MPH
\n2 E Golden 67 MPH
\n2 E Northeast Lakewood 64 MPH
\n2 ENE Lakewood 64 MPH
\n3 W Conifer 62 MPH
\nWheat Ridge 55 MPH<\/p>\n

Larimer…
\n4 E Loveland 73 MPH
\nNatural Fort Rest Area 71 MPH
\n5 NW Fort Collins 67 MPH
\n3 NE Loveland 67 MPH
\nWellington 63 MPH
\n4 E Fort Collins 63 MPH
\nVirginia Dale 62 MPH
\nFort Collins 57 MPH<\/p>\n

Lincoln…
\n3 W Cedar Point 80 MPH
\nLimon Airport 74 MPH<\/p>\n

Logan…
\nSterling Airport 73 MPH
\nSterling 70 MPH
\nCrook 65 MPH<\/p>\n

Morgan…
\nWiggins 61 MPH<\/p>\n

Park…
\nKenosha Pass 79 MPH
\nFairplay 77 MPH
\nWilkerson Pass 58 MPH<\/p>\n

Phillips…
\n4 E Haxtun 70 MPH
\nHolyoke 63 MPH
\n8 S Holyoke 62 MPH<\/p>\n

Summit…
\n7 S Frisco 126 MPH
\n9 E Dillon 90 MPH
\n7 SSW Frisco 86 MPH<\/p>\n

Washington…
\nAkron 75 MPH
\nWoodrow 73 MPH
\n5 NW Woodlin School 67 MPH<\/p>\n

Weld…
\n4 ENE Eaton 80 MPH
\n3 NNW Cornish 79 MPH
\n2 NNW New Raymer 77 MPH
\n10 NE Pawnee Buttes 74 MPH
\nBriggsdale 72 MPH
\n9 NNE Briggsdale 72 MPH
\n7 N Rockport 70 MPH
\nGreeley Airport 67 MPH
\n4 ENE Severance 63 MPH
\nEaton 63 MPH
\n1 N Greeley 62 MPH
\n6 E Berthoud 62 MPH
\n2 W Keenesburg 58 MPH
\nMilliken 56 MPH<\/p>\n

\"12\/31\/11<\/a>
12\/31\/11 - Here is surface pressure analysis (light blue lines) and infrared satellite image at 12 PM MST near the height of the windstorm. Note the large difference in pressure between the surface low pressure over southeast Nebraska and high pressure centered over southern Idaho, and the resulting tight gradient across Colorado. This is a key feature in windstorms across the Front Range and High Plains. (NWS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"12\/31\/11<\/a>
12\/31\/11 - A 6 hour model forecast of 700 mb winds (approximately 10,000 ft MSL) and surface pressure. 700 mb wind strength is noted by flags (50kts) plus barbs (10kts for full & 5kts for half). Stronger downslope flow and large scale subsidence which occurred in this storm can bring these stronger winds aloft down to the surface. (NWS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"12\/31\/11<\/a>
12\/31\/11 - A surface plot of weather stations across the region during the windstorm. This image was taken at 1 PM MST, when the maximum winds were spreading across the northeast plains of Colorado. At this time, the strongest corridor of winds stretched from Sterling (gusting to 59 kts or 68 mph), to Akron (gusting to 63 kts or 72 mph) to Burlington (gusting to 66 kts or 76 mph). (NWS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northeastern Colorado closed out 2011 with pummeling high winds on New Year’s Eve.\u00a0 Wind gusts of tropical and hurricane storm strength slammed into the region causing damage and claiming one life. In the Denver metro area gusts approaching 50mph were common while areas in the foothills and mountains to the west and on the plains … Continue reading National Weather Service releases summary of New Year’s Eve windstorm<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[156,86,17,548],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4457,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}