California has a new wind-speed record: 199 mph

A 199-mph gust that blasted a mountaintop at the Alpine Meadows ski resort last February was the strongest wind ever recorded in California, federal scientists reported.

It was also the strongest non-tornado wind in the United States last year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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

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

Mount Washington holds the record for fastest wind speed in the U.S. — a 231-mph gust in April 1934. That stood as the world record for 62 years, until a 253-mph wind was noted during a typhoon on Barrow Island, Australia.

The 199-mph gust whipped Ward Peak in Alpine Meadows at about 11 p.m. Feb. 20 during a storm. It was certified last week as California’s strongestever wind by the National Climate Data Center’s Extremes Committee, a division of NOAA.

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

“I’d never seen anything like that,” Kurth said. “These are the types of winds we see up in the jet stream. To see that in the Sierra is extraordinary.”

Typically, winds in the most powerful Sierra storms top out around 100 mph. Any gusts close to 200 mph are usually found in hurricanes.

Wind data can be unreliable, because strong gusts can blow over the instruments designed to measure speeds. In the case of the Alpine Meadows gust, however, two wind-measuring anemometers survived the storm and had similar readings for the gust that buffeted Ward Peak, elevation 8,637 feet.

Mike Anderson, a state climatologist who chairs the Extremes Committee and made the final call on putting the gust in the record books, called the 199-mph gust “impressive.”

The state did not have an official record for highest wind speed before 2017. Unofficially, a 176-mph gust, also recorded on Ward Peak, was considered the record.