High Wind — Washington County, Colorado

2024-04-06 to 2024-04-07 · Washington County, Colorado

Event narrative

Here are the strongest wind gusts: Akron 74, 72, and 69 MPH, with the strongest gust occurring 0955 MST on 4-7. I-76 Merino exit 63 MPH, 1 NW Akron 62 MPH.

Wider weather episode

An intense storm system moved across northeast Colorado on April 6th and then moved northeast into central Nebraska on April 7th. Strong and damaging winds occurred over portions of the mountains, foothills and northeast plains, from April 6th through April 7th, as the system moved across. Wind gusts across the mountains and along and near the foothills ranged from 70 to 95 mph with a peak gust of 97 mph at the NCAR Mesa Lab. Across the northeast plains, the strongest winds were focused along and north of a line from Denver to Fort Morgan to Akron. Winds gusts from 60 to 80 mph were common.

There were several reports of downed trees, power poles and other minor damage where the highest winds occurred. Up to 150,000 customers lost power during the peak of the event. Most of these outages were in and around the Denver area. More than 600 miles of lines were proactively de-energized by XCEL energy. (This is first time XCEL has done this).

Colorado State Patrol was notified of 10 toppled semi trucks throughout Colorado during the wind storm, most were on the Interstate 25 corridor and on Interstate 70. Numerous small fires were start due to blown over powerlines, including one house fire in Denver where powerlines fell on a home.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1162100. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.