55 MPH Wind Gusts Expected in Billings This Weekend
Hold onto your hats this weekend because it's about to get pretty windy around much of the Treasure State. The National Weather Service in Billings has issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for most of south central Montana, effective now (11/13) through Saturday night, with wind gusts as high as 55 miles per hour expected, adding:
These strong winds could cause travel concerns due to dangerous crosswinds and could also cause unsecured items to easily be tossed about.
Winds could be even stronger in northwestern Montana and Livingston area, as seen in a Tweet from the NWS Billings office.
Livingston gets the dubious honor of wind jokes in Montana, but it's not uncommon for Chinook winds to reach gusts of 60+ mph along much of the Rocky Mountain Front, stretching basically from Livingston to the Hi-Line. The windiest place in Montana ever recorded was at the Miller Colony, ten miles north of Choteau, when gusts reached 143 mph in 2002, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
I was thinking of putting up some Christmas lights on the house this weekend, but the idea of dangling from a ladder in Tropical Storm level wind gusts doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Perhaps it will be more of an indoor weekend.
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