100+ mph winds blast Montana on Monday - Derails Train

Train derails northwest of Helena, no injuries reported

'HELENA - Gusty winds are not being ruled out in a train derailment that happened near Austin, where 25 train cars were derailed.

Wind gusts of up to 75 mph were reported in the area with sustained winds around 45 mph.

The derailment wad reported around 5 a.m. on Monday, and is only affecting the east side tracks....'

[link to www.krtv.com]

Strong winds knock out power, close Hwy. 89

'Gale force winds with gusts exceeding 80 miles per hour have knocked out power to a wide swath of Teton and northern Lewis and Clark counties. According to Teton County Sheriff Keith Van Setten, downed power lines have forced the closure of at least two sections of U.S. Highway 89 south of Choteau....'

[link to www.greatfallstribune.com]

Heavy wind in Colorado, too.

A "Landcane"

We get em' too ...Denver/Boulder



Last Edited by RememberThis on 01/13/2014 07:16 PM

Broncs!

The longer its stays windy the bigger the next storm will be

In northwest Montana been very windy too. Power out Saturday and again today.
By far the strangest winter I have seen in the 12 years I have lived here.

Dryyyyyy here....after the floods

It has been going like this since early Saturday and got worse today. I guess it's supposed to let up by Wednesday, according to latest forecast, we'll have to see if that changes again. On Friday the forecast stated it would be windy Sat through Mon afternoon.

We're supposed to get some snow over night and the weatherman said it's possible there will be lighting with the snow storm because the atmosphere is so unstable right now.

Might be an interesting night....

We are supposed to get a "flurry" here tnite.

I expect a major event in 7 to 10 days.

Dont call Vegas on that prediction tho..

I heard the wind is worse the higher in elevation you are. I've lived here 31 years and do not recall having a winter like this. Beginning of December we had -34 temps and January brings gale force winds.

I can't wait to see what February brings! [/sarc]

Both!

You may be right.

I was reading a long term winter forecast and it stated there is a 40 day cycle, give or take a few days, to the nasty weather this winter.

End of Oct there was a nasty blizzard and frigid temps in Eastern Montana and the Dakota's that killed a lot of cattle. Roughly 40 days later, the nasty weather shifted to the west a bit and we had extremely frigid temps over the entire state. Here we are about 40 days after that last cold snap. If the same pattern keeps going, it'll be worse than before and we might be in for a wild ride.

I hope not. Those kind of temps combined with high winds would give us wind chill temps around -80*F. No thanks!

Well.........at least if the power goes out we can just put food outside (except for those damn bears and bunnies LOL)

Whats even more fun is re-setting a freakin' breaker in the middle of the night!

Cold air rushing in, that's why I hate winter thaws.

Is that where Ice Skates are the preferred method of transpo?

I hope not. We have about 3" of solid ice on the ground. It snows, then rains, then freezes. We get another cold snap I won't get rid of the ice until May at best.

My front door faces North...I have salt, kitty litter, gravel, rocks and leaves there and its still slick LOL

wtf is this???!!!

"The atmosphere is very unstable by January standards and for that reason, thunder and lightning might accompany the heavy snow bands."

[link to www.krtv.com]

Last Edited by LeisureLee on 01/13/2014 09:48 PM

I thought that was interesting, to say the least, as well.

I haven't seen any lightening so far, and the snow has slowed way down. Still overcast though so more may be coming.

This is true, guess that is a benefit of the power going out when it's cold. Always a silver lining right?

I'm not saying this is unusual, but I have lived in the Denver metro area for about 25 years, and I can't remember having such COLD and ferocious winds for four days in a row before. (Not all the time, not at all, but we have had VERY strong occasional gusts for four consecutive days now.) And even though the high temps have been averaging about 40-45 degrees, it has seemed to be MUCH colder than that -- or at least to me, it has.

Same here, 4 days of strong wind and the ambient temps are higher than I'd expect (40-50) in December, but the wind is very cold. I am on the Rocky Mountain front so we are no stranger to wind here, but this is not the norm, at least not the the norm we've been used to the last 25-30 years.

From what I understand though, we used to have winters like this or worse, is just been 50, 75 or 100 years since we've had anything like this. Probably just one big cycle.

Yes, very strange winter. Somehow the mountains are getting the snow but down in the valleys, we have had far fewer inches of snow than usual. The wind over the last five days has been some of the worst for the longest duration in my many many years here. 65 miles an hour twice in the past four days.