199-mph wind gust that blasted Alpine Meadows ski area last year set a California record
Scientists say a 199-mph gust that blasted a mountaintop at the Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe last February was the strongest wind ever recorded in California.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday it was also the strongest non-tornadic wind in the United States last year.
Tom Padham, a meteorologist with the Mt. Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, said that winds of just 120 mph will knock a person over, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Mt. Washington holds the record for fastest wind speed in the country — a 231-mph gust in April 1934. That stood as the world record for 62 years, until a 253-mph wind was noted during a typhoon on Barrow Island, Australia.
The 199-mph gust was certified last week as California’s strongest ever wind by the National Centers for Environmental Information, a division of NOAA.
The anemometers that recorded the 199 mph gust are private stations owned by the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows ski resort
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