Amid a snowy winter weekend, high winds and icy conditions hit parts of the Mountain West — including winds up to 118 miles per hour in one area of Wyoming.
And there’s more to come.
A National Weather Service peak wind report released Sunday morning showed a 118 mph gust blasted Clark, a small community in the northern part of the state, north of Cody. To the southeast, a 76 mph gust was recorded near Casper, the Casper Star Tribune reported.
Storm system brings power winds to the West
More winds are projected headed into Tuesday and Wednesday in large swaths of the West.
- A large storm system is forecasted to bring powerful wind gusts to a big portion of the western and central parts of the U.S., according to the National Weather Service Prediction Center.
- An atmospheric river event is forecasted to hit parts of central and southern California over the next two days with heavy rain fall and flash flooding in burn-scared areas, according to the National Weather Service. That same system, the service predicts, “will inundate the Western terrain with heavy snowfall. This entire storm will become a major wind event across the Plains into the Mississippi Valley Wednesday.”
- That “strong storm,” the National Weather Service reports, will “continue to impact the West Tuesday before moving from the southern Rockies across the Plains to the upper Midwest on Wednesday.” The storm’s snowfall is expected to hit several feet across the Great Basin’s mountains,
Utah weather
In Utah, winds also picked up.
- On Monday, the National Weather Service of Salt Lake City issued high wind watches for the state’s entire western side, including Tooele County to the north and, to the south, Cedar City areas.
- Utah’s forecast as of Monday evening also included winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings along the Wasatch Front.
Idaho storms
In Idaho, a “mega snow storm” dumped nearly 3 feet of new snow in some of the state’s mountain areas over the weekend, IdahoNews.com reported.
- Another storm is forecast to bring snow to Idaho’s valleys, set to hit the state late Wednesday through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Boise.
Idaho is also forecast to see more wind. The state was forecast to see high winds in its southern areas, including gusts of up to 40 mph.