Why is Wyoming so windy? (Cheyenne, Casper: construction, school, live)

[icequeen2008]

Now I am confused. I always thought that Chicago was the windy city? Now I find out that Wyoming is the windy one. What gives?

[WyoMama]

It's that Nebraska sucks

[ElkHunter]

Well, Chicago got it's name from the politicians that were stretching the truth. haha

Yes, Wyoming has wind in some areas, but not all. Today in Sheridan we had a gust up to 16 mph. But the mean was only 7 mph. Wouldn't call that windy.

[tpabes]

Originally Posted by WyoMama

It's that Nebraska sucks

Hey now! Don't forget Colorado blows!

Elkhunter is right on Chicago, and here is an article I found that gives a decent explantion for the wind.
Wingspan Online (http://www.lccc.cc.wy.us/wingspan/MaynewsWind.html - broken link)

[PsykoKustomz]

I had a saying when I lived in Utah. Needless to say it didn't win me many friends while I was there but here it is. The way the wind blows in Wyoming is simple Utah blows and Nebraska Sucks

[RockyMtnr]

Not too many folks understand that the entire West is windy - with some exception given to the coast ... which may or may not be windy but which is dependent on different circumstances.
In the Intermountain areas - i.e., those parts of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado ... some of New Mexico and Arizona ... the wind patterns are tied directly to the migration habits of the Tumbleweed. While this event is more visible in Nevada than in any of the other states, when the Tumbleweeds make their twice-yearly march, you can see them lined up by the hundreds and even thousands ... all attacking the hopping of fencelines together - acting as stairs and ladders for each other and even tossing each other over the fencelines to continue their journey(s). The cloud that often appears over the largest of the migration herds is enough to trigger "shadow-winds" which are derived from cloud patterns and whose signal triggers the release of more winds over long periods of time in the Intermountain area.
In the old days, the government used to hire "Tumbleweed-Boys" to ride those ranges and help herd the Tumbleweeds into travelling patterns that were more agreeable with shadowwind-mathematics - but the sheer "renegade" manner practiced by many clans of Tumbleweeds caused excessively long days and nights trying to keep the herds contained and so, the project had to be abandoned. Not that the practice ever really made a definitive dent in the winds - in fact - some differences were truly negligible but today, those Tumbleweeds continue to roam, unchecked - much like the wild horses of the region although even the horses are now cultivated and thinned while the "weeds" continue to bandy together for meetings and shows.
On a dark, camped-out night ... take care during your moonlight excursions that you do not come across the "Sergeant-of-Arms" of the herds - the "Tumbleweeds Enforcers" - it is not always a clearly understood confrontation.
So, there you have it - it's the Tumbleweeds that make the wind - and the wind, in turn makes it easier for the Tumbleweeds to travel, which makes more wind ... and the circle continues.
Ah, the West!

[MRVphotog]

Wyoming wasn't discovered yet when Chicago was named the " windy city ", plus there aren't any big cities in Wyoming.

Wyoming is so windy, in many areas, that:

just west of Laramie there a valley called the Big Hollow and it's the world's largest wind inversion depression in that it was totally formed by the wind, no water coming in or out. I have no documantation, this is what was told to me by a geology professor when I was a grad student in the 70's. BTW, UW has one of the most top rated Geology Programs on the planet(I was not a geology major). Go Pokes!

During that same time period PP & G attempted to build two huge wind turbines out in the Medicine Bow area. The wind knocked it over so many times during the construction that they quickly gave it up and went back to CA with their tails bewtween their legs.

[NVDave]

The Great Divide, coupled with the latitude of Wyoming relative to weather coming off the Pacific, make it a pretty sure bet the wind is gonna blow.

The rough triangle between Casper, Cheyenne and Laramie is ferociously windy. The rest of the state is only partly windy, with occasional gale-force winds. In the southeastern triangle, trains can be (and have been) blown off the tracks.

[WyoMama]

Originally Posted by MRVphotog

Wyoming wasn't discovered yet when Chicago was named the " windy city ", plus there aren't any big cities in Wyoming.

During that same time period PP & G attempted to build two huge wind turbines out in the Medicine Bow area. The wind knocked it over so many times during the construction that they quickly gave it up and went back to CA with their tails bewtween their legs.

Dangerous as that was when PP&G did that, it was SO FUNNY - that was in the really early 80's, wasn't it? I lived in Wheatland at the time. It was AMAZING nobody was seriously hurt or killed when those blades went flying.

About 8-9 miles south of Wheatland is the "Bordeaux Cut" - the famous windsocks on I-25. The cut is a natural cut the wind has made thru the mtns & is like a big wind tunnel. Is DOCUMENTED in energy books & geo lit as the windiest place in North America (yes including the north pole & Alaska, etc. etc.) for PERPETUAL wind. That doesn't mean it doesn't get windier at other places but for sustained perpetual winds (which is the area where it is my understanding they put those wind turbines that blew to pieces back into the Medicine Bow valley). It is the mountains breaking into the jet streams & breaking them up & pulling them down to the ground. And how do you think the foothills - razorbacks & other nicknames - got their names??? The wind blazing across the great plains & slamming against the the lowest of the mountains. Esp in Colo you can REALLY see the razorbacks. And in northwest Wyo by Clark. But Wyo has more broken up land to the east of us like the Black Hills so we don't have as many of them as Colo does. There IS a reason. The windiest parts are just east of the front range & out in the open. Not so much in the mountians because they are protected. (loved the story about the tumbleweed...LOL - thought I'd give an actual serious answer to this question..)

[MRVphotog]

Originally Posted by WyoMama

Dangerous as that was when PP&G did that, it was SO FUNNY - that was in the really early 80's, wasn't it? I lived in Wheatland at the time. It was AMAZING nobody was seriously hurt or killed when those blades went flying.

About 8-9 miles south of Wheatland is the "Bordeaux Cut" - the famous windsocks on I-25. The cut is a natural cut the wind has made thru the mtns & is like a big wind tunnel. Is DOCUMENTED in energy books & geo lit as the windiest place in North America (yes including the north pole & Alaska, etc. etc.) for PERPETUAL wind. That doesn't mean it doesn't get windier at other places but for sustained perpetual winds (which is the area where it is my understanding they put those wind turbines that blew to pieces back into the Medicine Bow valley). It is the mountains breaking into the jet streams & breaking them up & pulling them down to the ground. And how do you think the foothills - razorbacks & other nicknames - got their names??? The wind blazing across the great plains & slamming against the the lowest of the mountains. Esp in Colo you can REALLY see the razorbacks. And in northwest Wyo by Clark. But Wyo has more broken up land to the east of us like the Black Hills so we don't have as many of them as Colo does. There IS a reason. The windiest parts are just east of the front range & out in the open. Not so much in the mountians because they are protected. (loved the story about the tumbleweed...LOL - thought I'd give an actual serious answer to this question..)

To be honest I'm not sure if it was PP&L. That company came to my mind as our geology class took a field trip out to Rock Springs for an all day tour of the Jim Bridger Power Plant/coal mine and it was, at that time run by PP&L.

I was in grad school 1974-76 so that's when the turbines I'm talking about were attempted but never got built. I then moved to northwest Wyoming.

This thread peeked my interest so from googling it looks like some turbines were built in the Medicine area since my days in grad school and have been working for years. Here's a link.
Town of Medicine Bow Wyoming (http://www.medicinebow.org/turbine.htm - broken link)

Gonna due some further checking, maybe my info is off, it's been almost 35 years.

Found this which indicates it was a few years after grad school and puts your early 80's time frame spot on.
"Medicine Bow is one of the windiest places in America. South of town, the first experimental giant wind turbines in Wyoming were built under contract from the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation in the early 1980s. Utility-operated wind farms provide electricity from windy points near Medicine Bow. In December 2007, plans were announced for construction of a large coal gasification plant to be built southwest of town. Completion date was estimated for 2010"

Wish the article mentioned which utility put the experimental wind turbines up.

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