BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado is a very windy place. Monday’s high wind event was the sixth since September where there were potentially damaging high winds of at least 84 mph.
But believe it or not, it used to be even windier -- especially with damaging wind events on the Front Range.
“Those actually seem to be getting less frequent over the last 30 years," National Weather Service Meteorologist Paul Schlatter said. "The overall magnitude of the events we get are decreasing as well.”
Schlatter is a Colorado native, and he now issues High Wind Warnings in his home state. He pulled the wind data across the Front Range over the last 28 years and found a declining trend in high wind events.
From 1996 to 2005, all 10 years had at least 10 days with an 84 mph wind gust. The 1998-99 wind season, which runs from September through the end of May, registered an astonishing 18 days with an 84 mph wind gust.
Over the past 19 years, there's only been one year -- 2011 -- with 10 or more high wind days.
Schlatter said the decrease averaged out to be a decline of about three fewer high wind events per season. That might not be noticeable to the average resident, but it’s significant enough for the National Center for Atmospheric Research to launch an investigation.
“They are looking at this very topic. To explain why there’s a 28-year declining trend in the intensity in the number of these events," Schlatter said. "And they’re trying to see if climate change plays a role, but so far research hasn’t really come up with any answers to that question yet.”
He emphasized that high wind events that produce gusts of 60 to 100 mph on the Front Range will continue for many more years, just at a reduced frequency. And it only takes one serious wind event to cause damage or carry a destructive wildfire.
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