199-MPH Sierra wind gust sets California record

Ward Peak, on the center left of the photo, recorded a wind gust of 199 mph on February 20, 2017. Ward Peak, on the center left of the photo, recorded a wind gust of 199 mph on February 20, 2017. Photo: Courtesy Alpine Meadows Photo: Courtesy Alpine Meadows Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close 199-MPH Sierra wind gust sets California record 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

A gust that blasted the summit of a peak at Alpine Meadows in February was the fastest non-tornado wind recorded in the United States in 2017.

The 199-mph gust was also the fastest ever recorded in California, according to the National Climate Data Center's Extremes Committee, which sanctioned the mark last week.

For comparison, 140-mph winds have been known to pick up and hurl baseball-sized rocks.

"Even in winds of 120 mph you can't stand under your own force," says Tom Padham, a meteorologist with the Mount Washington Observatory. "You're knocked over pretty quickly. You wouldn't be able to stand back up."

New Hampshire's Mount Washington holds the record for fastest wind speed on U.S. soil — 231 mph.

The powerful 199-mph gust whipped Ward Peak in Alpine Meadows ski resort at about 11 p.m. Feb. 20 during a fierce storm driven by an atmospheric river that pummeled the northern Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Sacramento, was working that night when he noticed the astounding wind reading.

In powerful storms, gusts up to 100 mph are typical in the Sierra. Anything close to 200 mph is remarkable and rare anywhere in the world, and would most likely occur in a typhoon or maybe atop Mount Everest (off climbing season).

"I'd never seen anything like that," says Kurth who has been working at the Sacramento office for 10 years. "These are the types of winds we see up in the jet stream. To see that in the Sierra is extraordinary."

Wind data can be unreliable as it's a challenge to find instrumentation that can survive the extreme gusts, but in this case two anemometers, devices that measure wind, in the same geographical area survived the storm and had similar readings.

Mike Anderson, the state climatologist who chairs the State Extremes Committee and made the final call on putting the gust in the record books, calls the data "impressive."

RELATED GALLERY: The most extreme California weather ever recorded

. . Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close The most extreme California weather ever recorded 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

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California hasn't officially claimed a wind gust record until now. An anecdotal report of a 176 mph gust recorded at the same spot on Ward Peak (aka Ward Mountain or the top of chair 6 at Alpine) is legendary in the meteorology community and was loosely considered to be the fastest. "Another strong gust reported at Lee Vining was discounted as unreliable," Kurth says.

Kurth saw an opportunity for California to claim an official record with the National Climate Data Center's Extremes Committee that tracks everything from maximum and minimum temperatures and snow depth records for all states. (Find a list of all of California's records in the gallery above.)

"It was a perfect case where we had a very powerful storm that could legitimately have strong winds," he says. "We had two stations that agreed with each other and then we had damage. To me it was a rare opportunity."

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The Mount Washington Observatory is known for its miserable weather and legendary winds. The 231-mph gust that struck the mountain in 1934 remains the fastest ever recorded by a human. The overall mark of at 253 miles an hour —recorded by an automated weather station — occurred during a cyclone in Australia in 1996

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The anemometers that recorded the 199 mph in Tahoe are private stations owned by the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows ski resort; the Reno-based Western Weather Group maintains the data and the University of Utah distributes it.

Kurth called Western Weather and the company that makes the anemometers, Taylor Scientific, to confirm the reliability of the data and their scientists were all confident it was accurate.

He also contacted Squaw Valley and talked with someone who visited Ward Peak after the storm.

"He told me there was damage up at that spot," Kurth says. Broken windows on the ski lift building. He also mentioned he saw a dozen large trees that were snapped."

But really the most compelling evidence proving the legitimacy of the data was the nature of the storm.

Kurth says sustained winds were up to 100 mph that night and in those sorts of blustery conditions an isolated gust up to 200 mph is possible.

What's more, he says the wind was constricted that night at higher elevations in the Sierra between a strong inversion, a stable layer of the atmosphere that was acting like a lid, and the Sierra crest. The concern was that the high winds would blow down into the more populated valley areas but instead they were held right at about 9,000 feet, the elevation of Ward Peak.

"It's like with a garden hose and you squeeze the hose and the water goes faster," he explains. "You constrict that path where the water can go and it accelerates the speed."

In other words, it was the perfect storm for a 199-mph gust.