Powerful winds whipped across the state Wednesday toppling trees, power poles and knocking out electricity to thousands of Montanans.
Anyone hiking Wednesday morning on Missoula’s Mount Sentinel, just east of the University of Montana got a lot more fresh air than they bargained for.
According to a still unofficial report from the local National Weather Service office, an incredible 125 mile-per-hour wind gust was measured at the top of the popular hiking spot.
According to National Weather Service Great Falls, new January wind speed records were also set Wednesday in Great Falls, Helena, and Havre, at 76, 74 and 72 miles per hour respectively.
125 mph wind gust reported on the west face of Mt. Sentinel (~5050 feet) at 1045 am MST
Notable peak wind gusts as of 1100 am MST
Mountain Aeneas - 101 mph
Hornet Mountain - 96 mph
Stevensville - 67 mph
Grangeville - 65 mph
Polson - 59 mph
Missoula - 51 mph #mtwx #idwx— NWS Missoula (@NWSMissoula) January 13, 2021
The powerful winds moving ahead of an incoming cold front dropped trees and power lines, knocking out power to tens of thousands of Montanans. Flathead Electric Cooperative, alone, reported over 16,000 outages by mid-day.
Western Montana’s winds were expected to persist through the mid evening hours then gradually diminish through Thursday morning.
Parts of eastern Montana can expect another blast of Canadian air that will keep the strong winds blowing through most of Thursday.
[10:30am MST 1/13/2021] It's an incredible sight to see "flagging" on top of Point 6 mountain, north of #Missoula. The 90+ mph winds are blowing the snow off the peak! #MTwx pic.twitter.com/76NYGfHOyY— NWS Missoula (@NWSMissoula) January 13, 2021
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