Windy Mess On Wyoming I-25 (PHOTOS)
When people rank the worst windstorms in Wyoming, this one will likely be remembered for years.
Beginning March 12 and stretching into Friday the 13th, powerful winds tore across the Cowboy State—rolling vehicles along highways, toppling massive old trees, and leaving scattered property damage in their wake.
On the 12th, I drove from Casper to Cheyenne along I-25. The vehicle I was in sits fairly low to the ground, so I wasn’t overly worried about the wind itself, though I knew there would be stretches that might require some white-knuckle driving.
At first, it wasn’t too bad. Leaving Casper, I had a quartering tailwind. But from Glendo south toward Cheyenne, the conditions steadily worsened.
Here’s what I saw along the way.
It’s a sign most drivers seem to ignore. Even with the warning posted, big, boxy vehicles of all sizes were still out on the road.
Past Douglas, the quartering tailwind shifted into a direct crosswind, and that’s when things started to get ugly.
The first blown-over vehicles appeared south of Wheatland but before Chugwater. In that stretch of highway, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has long posted warning signs and windsocks because the winds there can be brutal year-round. On this day, three trucks had already been tipped over in that very area.
By the time we passed through, emergency crews had already completed their rescue work. The truck cabs had been hauled away, but the trailers remained behind, waiting to be removed later.
Each one had been marked with a large “X,” a signal to other crews that the vehicle had already been checked and handled.
The wind only intensified as we approached Chugwater. That’s where we spotted a toppled Target trailer.
We stopped to visit friends in Chugwater at the Tri-County-Mercantile. One of the shop’s owners is also a school bus driver, and she told me there would be no bus routes running that day. Everything had been canceled because of the wind.
The next wreck we saw involved a rental moving van that had just made it over the Chugwater overpass on the interstate. That overpass is notorious for tossing vehicles around on windy days like this. The driver lost control just past the other side.
They almost made it.
Wasn't there a sign that warned these drivers to stay off the road?
OH YEAH! There was.
That 80mph was soon updated to 85mph, and then beyond.
Our phones let out a yell for a weather warning. Here is what we heard and what the text read.
This was correct. Visibility was low.
For some reason, most of these wrecks were in the Southbound Lane.
The next few were beyond Chugwater, where the crosswinds were recorded at 110mph and beyond.
What you see below is a billboard, just north of Cheyenne.
The sign cover had been ripped off and was violently blowing against the fencing. Thankfully, it did not blow across the highway into a vehicle.
We arrived in Cheyenne to find the wind had left its mark across the city. Trees were down in several areas, and along Capitol Avenue a bank clock had been shattered, its pieces scattered on the ground below.
There was a little damage done to the radio station vehicle. The front license plate had been bent from the crosswinds. That is impressive.
Snow Crushes Wheatland, Wyoming Airplane Hangars
Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods
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