With only a few days left
until the official start of Winter on December 21st (or the end of
the World, as the Mayans are calling for!), we are already well into the Winter
Season with plenty of snow around Jackson Hole to guarantee a White Christmas
for the valley. In the mountains, there is a ridiculous amount at the higher
elevations in the Tetons, for this early in the season.
The Snow
From Friday through Monday
around 20 inches of snow fell at around the 9500-ft. elevation in the Tetons.
The Raymer weather station at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tallied 25
inches. And even over on Togwotee Pass 13 inches of snow at about the same
elevation was measured at Brooks Lake Lodge and by the SnoTel instrument.
The Blow
It was the wind on Monday
December 17th that was even more impressive, with average wind speeds
at top of the Tram exceeding 40 mph at times and a maximum gust of 78 mph. Top
of the Headwall had a gust of 75 mph.
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Wind
Graphs from Monday, December 17, 2012
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Top of
the Tram
10,450-ft. at JHMR |
Mt. Coffin
10,850-ft. in the Salt River Range |
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The big winner for wind
speeds on Monday was Mt. Coffin in the Salt River Range east of Afton, WY at 10,850-ft.
The weather station up there on that ridge clocked average speeds of over 100
mph and had an “unverifiable” gust of 266 mph.
Yes! 266 mph! That was about
the same time the core of the jet stream was over Wyoming with winds at
30,000-ft. in excess of 150 mph. (See jet map). Possibly an
erroneous reading as a result of the way the electronics in these instruments
handle gusts??
IF this wind gust was
verifiable, it would qualify as the highest gust ever recorded on the face of
the earth. You might have thought the 231 mph gust on Mt.
Washington in New Hampshire was the highest ever, back in
1934. That record was actually beaten by a wind gust during a typhoon in Australia back
in 1996, with a measured gust of 253 mph.
BUT, I already checked with
the folks who run the MesoWest at the University of Utah,
the clearing house for all these weather stations, and they suspect that these
super high gusts are false values that the electronics are providing in these
instances.
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| Jet Stream Monday Dec. 17, 2012 |
Post by meteorologist Jim
Woodmencey
Data from MesoWest
Photos from Bridger-Teton
Jet map from MeteoStar
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