Record 199MPH wind speeds hit California last year: Meteorologists picked up fastest ever gust of wind in the Sierra Nevada that is more typical at the top of Mount Everest

Record 199MPH wind speeds hit California last year: Meteorologists picked up fastest ever gust of wind in the Sierra Nevada that is more typical at the top of Mount Everest

  • The gust blasted through the summit of a peak at Alpine Meadows, located nearly 200 miles east of San Francisco 
  • The fastest ever wind gust ever in the United States was recorded at 231 mph on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1934 
  • The overall mark of 253 miles an hour —recorded by an automated weather station — occurred during a cyclone in Australia in 1996 
  • Such winds typically show up in typhoons or on Mount Everest, the highest mountain above sea level in the world 

 

The fastest wind gust ever recorded in California‘s history clocked in 199 mph, the National Climate Data Center’s Extremes Committee said in a statement Thursday.

The gust blasted through the summit of a peak at Alpine Meadows, located nearly 200 miles east of San Francisco, in February 2017 and was marked as the the fastest non-tornado wind recorded all year.

According to SFgate.com, wind gusts of 140 mph are able to hurl baseball sized rocks, providing a frame of reference to the strength of the natural phenomenon.

The gust blasted through the summit of a peak at Alpine Meadows, located nearly 200 miles east of San Francisco

The fastest ever wind gust ever in the United States was recorded at 231 mph on New Hampshire's Mount Washington in 1934

The fastest ever wind gust ever in the United States was recorded at 231 mph on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1934

‘Even in winds of 120 mph you can’t stand under your own force,’Tom Padham, a meteorologist with the Mount Washington Observatory, told the publication.

‘You’re knocked over pretty quickly. You wouldn’t be able to stand back up.’

The fastest ever wind gust ever in the United States was recorded at 231 mph on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1934.

The overall mark of 253 miles an hour —recorded by an automated weather station — occurred during a cyclone in Australia in 1996, SFgate.com reported.

Such winds, Kurth notes, typically show up in typhoons or on Mount Everest, the highest mountain above sea level in the world

Powerful wind storms up to 100 mph are typical in the Sierras, a mountain range  located between the Central Valley of California and the Nevada Basin.

But Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Sacramento, says that anything approach 200 mph is rare, not only in California but all over the world.

‘I’d never seen anything like that,’ says Kurth, adding ‘These are the types of winds we see up in the jet stream. To see that in the Sierra is extraordinary.’

Such winds, Kurth notes, typically show up in typhoons or on Mount Everest, the highest mountain above sea level in the world.

Kurth said one explanation for the phenomenon may have been because a strong gust became constricted at a higher elevations in the Sierras, with an inversion of a stable layer of the atmosphere acting like a lid between the Sierra crest.

‘It’s like with a garden hose and you squeeze the hose and the water goes faster,’ he explains. ‘You constrict that path where the water can go and it accelerates the speed.’

Perfect condition, Kurth said, that would lead to a 199-mph gust.

Kurth said one explanation for the phenomenon may have been because a strong gust became constricted at a higher elevations in the Sierras

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5261343/Fastest-wind-gust-recorded-California.html#ixzz540i3zmvL
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