GOSHEN COUNTY – The big bad wolf has nothing on the relentless winds of Wyoming.
This week, Goshen County and much of the surrounding area experienced rain, snow, sleet, and high winds for much of the weekend. The pressure system smashed into Wyoming and stalled out for portions of Saturday and Sunday over the Cowboy State.
The ripple effect tore out trees, broke limbs, smashed into buildings ripping off siding off houses and buildings. The weather pattern also snapped over one hundred power poles from the Wyoming border deep into Nebraska.
“This low kind of tracked across northern Colorado into southwestern Nebraska and stalled out. They kind of do that when the low is strengthening. They kind of stop for a while as they strengthen and what happened was the low deepened and it made a real strong pressure gradient across southeast Wyoming and into the Nebraska panhandle,” Gerald Claycomb, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service (NWS) Cheyenne office said. “With a strong pressure gradient, you get real strong winds with it and then the low didn’t move so we had a real prolonged period of strong winds with that.”
“As far as Goshen County, we fared well compared to most of our neighbors. Up north, we had a couple of inches of snow and some deeper drifts due to the wind however, we have no considerable damage. Down south, we had mostly light rain and winds, blowing over some fences in the area. In the western part of the county, we again have limbs down but no damage to structures or power outages,” Thom Bozeman of Goshen County Emergency Management said.
Some areas of Torrington were still a disarray Monday morning after the strongest of the winds had subsided.
“In the Torrington area, we had several trees down but luckily, no substantial damage,” Bozeman said. “The city is also reporting they had one short power outage that affected a small amount of homes but service was restored very quickly.”
“We had at least three downed trees, Jirdon Park, East G, and West B,” Mayor Herb Doby said. “There was not much damage, and the cleanup is done or mostly done.” A couple of street signs were down, but that has been taken care of.”
As of press time, Tuesday morning, many homes in Nebraska and some in Wyoming are without power despite the tireless effort of hundreds of linemen.
“Torrington was blessed to be relatively unscathed by the recent very high winds and little to no snowfall. We had a very brief power outage affecting some parts of the city about 3:00 a.m. on Sunday,” Doby said. “All in all, the city weathered well those very high winds and of course, we are all grateful for the moisture.”
“We were getting moisture wrapping around the east and the northern, into the northwest side of that low, so we got real heavy snow across the northern Nebraska panhandle into Niobrara and northern Goshen counties and even into southern Converse County. We got a lot of snow with it too,” Claycomb said. “We had 36 hours of strong winds with this.
“In the Torrington area, we had several trees down but luckily, no substantial damage,” Bozeman said. “The tree that fell at Jirdon Park was indeed from this storm system. The city is also reporting they had one short power outage that affected a small amount of homes but service was restored very quickly.”
Wyrulec Company kept the community informed on their Facebook page with frequent updates regarding the outage and the work being done to repair the broken lines.
“Our crews will continue to battle the elements to restore power around the clock. We have made an attempt to contact each of our Nebraska members affected by telephone, and we cannot say thank you enough for your patience, feedback, preparedness, and kind words for the safety of our staff. Our crews are tasked with repairing downed transmission and distribution infrastructure,” Wyrulec said on Sunday morning.
On Monday morning contractors were continuing to assess the damages caused by the winds.
“We are fortunate to have an additional contractor lined up to assist our crews with construction today; all hands are on deck from Wyrulec Company, along with a crew from Wheatland REA, Ward Electric Company, and Schulte Inc. You will see a lot of activity today, as these trucks make their way up and down your roads and property to make repairs. Those assisting us will be using their trucks, so you will see trucks with the various names and logos,” Wyrulec said on Monday morning. “As of this morning, we have a preliminary estimate of over 100 poles down as a result of the storm, some areas are still being assessed. Countless damage to cross arms, wire, etc. continue to be accounted for. Please continue to stay clear of any downed lines, poles, trucks, and construction zones.”
By Monday afternoon, Wyrulec would report an observed 150 poles down, with additional information still coming. They also urged the community to take action and make preparations to be without electricity for an extended amount of time as crews continue to make their way to disaster areas.
Torrington was more protected during this weekend’s storm system than the higher elevation, Claycomb explained.
“Peak winds at Torrington 63 mph the late afternoon of the 6th (Saturday), but there were stronger winds,” Claycomb explained. “The airport censor here in Cheyenne had 83 (mph). A couple of wind sensors had readings into the 90s, the low 90s. We had reports of 90 (mph) down by Sidney and another one just west of Cheyenne that was 91 (mph),” Claycomb said.
Although the wind has been stronger than most people would like, Claycomb says we’ve had stronger winds in the past.
Precipitation was heavy in some places, according to Claycomb.
“That band of wrap-around moisture around the low, it really hammered northern Goshen County there. We had reports of up to about a foot of snow in the northern part of the county. Lusk got hit really bad up there with 14 plus inches and they had the strong winds, so they got some really deep drifts,” Claycomb said. “Torrington was just south of that band of heavy snow.”
The NWS hasn’t had too many reports of damages caused by the winter storm however Claycomb stated there is damage throughout Cheyenne.
“Several reports here in Cheyenne of trees down but the real devastated area is Scotts Bluff County (Nebraska) and the southern panhandle (of Nebraska),” Claycomb explained. “A combination of the strong winds and the snow and ice just knocked down up to 1,000 power poles out in the southern panhandle there. They were pretty devastated out there.”
The remainder of this week’s weather is looking up as the winds calm down and Claycomb says the weekend will be pleasant in Goshen County.
“It’s going to warm up through the week,” Claycomb said. “We are looking at a temperature near 70 Friday into Saturday. There is a weak cold front that’s going to move through Wednesday and give us some rain showers and drop in temperature, but it will warm up near the weekend,” he added.
“I would like to say thank you to everyone who stayed hunkered down and safe in their homes, making it easier for our emergency services personnel. When severe weather strikes our area, our emergency services personnel, road and bridge, and utility workers answer the call to ensure we all stay safe,” Bozeman said. “To all our emergency responders, hospital staffers, and repair crews who report to work no matter the storm conditions, we thank you for your service.”
