Powerful winds Feb. 10 near Georgetown Lake — which may have reached speeds up to 122 mph — toppled a tractor-trailer, closed Interstate 70 and blew out car windows.
Georgetown City Clerk Jennifer Yobski witnessed firsthand the strength of the gusts that day, thought to be among the strongest winds in recent memory.
Yobski was in her car near Georgetown Lake and the 22nd Street bridge when she saw the semi blow over.
“We knew it was windy, but we didn’t think it was so bad,” Yobski said. “And all of a sudden (my) rear window just shattered.”
Yobski described the incident in detail.
“So we’re sitting there going, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and then all of a sudden another gust of wind came by and blew out the driver’s-side window,” Yobski said. “It didn’t just crack it. It was, like, gone — and all the glass had fallen into the car.”
She said no one in her car was hurt by the flying glass.
“It was so scary,” she said, adding that 10 other people were affected by the wind, and a tow truck also had a window blown out.
Meanwhile, about 7:30 a.m. westbound I-70 was closed east of Floyd Hill, and the eastbound lanes were closed at Silverthorne.
‘Peculiar wind pattern ‘
A local volunteer group called the Georgetown Weather Observers regularly measures precipitation, snowfall and temperature, and submits data to the National Weather Service.
An anemometer by the lake, which records wind speed, detected gusts as high as 122 mph.
Mike Baker, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Boulder, said that speed was “conceivable.”
“(But) I don’t know how probable that is. … Instruments can make mistakes, especially when they reach a certain limit,” Baker said. “If the instruments aren’t calibrated to measure very high winds, they can start messing up a little.”
Baker said the 122 mph winds were possible, but other weather-recording stations in Georgetown registered high wind peaks of 65 to 75 mph.
However, Georgetown Weather Observers members maintain the wind-measuring instrument was in good working order and are confident of the reading.
Bob Loeffler, a member of the group, said NWS personnel asked whether the recorded wind speeds could be compared with other locations.
“And we said, ‘Who?’ We have a very peculiar wind pattern here because of the way these valleys come together, and so we don’t know anybody that we can compare to,” Loeffler said. “I know a few years ago, the wind gusted so strongly that it actually broke our anemometer.”
Baker said a powerful jet stream passing over the area at 185 mph at 15,000 to 18,000 feet caused the Georgetown winds.
“In addition to a very strong west wind and cold air spilling over the top of the mountains, (all of that) came together to produce these exceptionally strong winds over the Front Range and down onto the Eastern Plains,” Baker said.
Loeffler said the reading was recorded about the same time as windows were blown out and the semi tipped over, and as far as he could tell it was one of the highest winds recorded in recent memory.
“Our really high (winds) have been in the high 90s, low 100s,” Loeffler said. “We all thought, ‘Holy Toledo!’, when we saw this.”
Contact Ian Neligh at couranteditor@evergreenco.com, and check www.clearcreekcourant.com for updates and breaking news.