COLORADO, USA — A three-day high wind event hit Colorado this week with several gusts stronger than 100 miles per hour, but it's unlikely that many of those gusts were felt by humans because most were high on top of mountain peaks.
The location of the reports posted by the National Weather Service usually carry the name of the nearest town, but most of the strongest gusts were on mountain peaks.
For instance, the strongest gust measured during the storm came from a weather station called 8 miles SSE of Fraser, which is actually 12,060 feet up on the Parsenn Bowl at Winter Park Resort.
Nine of the top 10 gusts from this storm were all on mountain peaks away from people, except an 88 mph gust which was recorded at a CDOT weather station on Highway 82 just south of Basalt.
There were five other hurricane force wind gusts reported down at the lower elevations, other than the 88 mph gust in Basalt, but even those were likely not felt by humans.
Most weather stations have the anemometer about 33 feet off the ground, and even the wind speed difference between that height and the average human can be significant.
The use of the term "hurricane force" can also be questioned.
A category one hurricane force wind is from 74 to 95 miles per hour, so technically it's accurate, but those are sustained winds that last for two minutes. A gust usually only lasts for 20 to 40 seconds.
There was, however, a sustained wind of 80 mph measured in Colorado on top of Bottle Peak in Grand County on Tuesday.
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