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We live on the Ogden / North Ogden boundary, just a few blocks from the mountains. At the moment, there is a storm blowing in from the northwest, yet we are experiencing rather violent winds from the east, and from the south. The effects of the wind in this area seem to be double what they are anywhere else in this part of the county. What would cause the wind to be blowing in an opposite (and frequently changing) direction from the storm? What would cause the effects of these winds to be magnified in this little area? Is it the shape of the mountains? Does the wind blow laterally, or does the high pressure from the impending storm drop on top of the mountains from a higher altitude and pour down the canyons like a torrent of water would? I've often wondered about this since a particularly bad storm in 2004 "redecorated" several dozen homes in this area; maybe you could tell me what's happening meteologically? Russ E.
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Great question Russ! This past weekend featured an all out winter storm for portions of Utah, however while Ogden didn't end up getting much snow due to our southerly storm track you guys did get stuck with damaging winds instead.
As our area of low pressure moved up into Utah from the south and west our winds around it were counter clockwise. So picture this: The state of Utah, put a big red Low in the middle, the winds blow counter clockwise. Draw this if you like! Anyway, the winds around this low in Ogden at the time were doing two things like Russ mentions. Blowing out of the south and then really huge gusts out of the east.
Out ahead of the low, the winds would have been out of the south but what was happening was very cold air was getting into the canyons around Ogden. The cold air gusting out of the canyons is from the east. Higher up in the atmosphere, there were strong easterly winds blowing around the low. The low pressure aloft is actually tilted back from the surface low. Since it was located aloft farther westward, the winds higher up in Ogden were more easterly. The cold easterly winds were sinking down the canyon and causing major canyon winds.
Even though the canyon winds were going on, you still had the primary surface winds from the south so the wind kept changing direction. Strong easterly winds and cold air make for a nasty combination for canyon winds, that could have redecorated your shingles for sure.
Your thoughts about the mountain are in the right direction. As cold air sits over the mountains it wants to sink, it can rush down into the valleys as canyon winds.
I hope this helps to understand your windy night over there. Areas of low pressure can be confusing and do a lot of different things with the air at different levels of the atmosphere. Some links on the right will help you a bit more.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
