Wild winds whip Whitman County

Fallen shingles and tipped over trash cans littered Whitman County Monday, casualties of a wind storm that tore across the Palouse at velocities exceeding 60 miles per hour.

“Yesterday was something else,” John Livingston, meteorologist-in-charge with the National Weather Service in Spokane, said Tuesday.

Wind blew back metal panels on the roof of the old Dow Chemical building in St. John.

The weather service issued a warning Sunday for Monday’s high winds.

Winds that hit as high as 65 miles per hour knocked over trees and disconnected power all over the Inland Empire. Avista reported 18,000 customers were without power at 2:30 p.m. Inland Power and Light had 4,200 customers without power during Monday afternoon’s peak.

At 11:45 a.m. a 62-mile per hour gust knocked the top off a tree measuring eight inches in diameter across a power line on the North River Road near Palouse, knocking out power to much of the city.

The wind was believed by law enforcement officials to have played a role in two automobile accidents on county highways Monday morning.

One of those accidents took the life of Paul E. Ganoung, 47, Spokane. Mr. Ganoung died at the scene when his 2002 Harley Davidson motorcycle crashed into a guard rail on the northbound shoulder of Highway 195 near Rosalia. State Trooper Doug Powers said Mr. Ganoung was likely traveling at a high rate of speed when a strong crosswind forced his motorcycle onto the shoulder.

Winds were so strong, they grounded a Life Flight helicopter traveling from Lewiston to Spokane. The helicopter had to make an emergency landing on Highway 23 three miles west of St. John. The patient in the helicopter was transported via ambulance from St. John to Spokane.

Also in St. John, winds rolled back panels off the roof of the former Dow Chemical warehouse on the west edge of town.

One lane of the Central Ferry Highway was blocked off completely about 5 p.m. by a collection of tumbleweeds.

According to the weather service, high wind in the area was a 65 miles per hour gust recorded at the weather service’s Silcott Island station, just west of Clarkston on the Snake River at 3:30 p.m.

On top of the Snake River breaks, winds gusted as high as 60 miles per hour at Uniontown at 12:10 p.m. Gusts at the weather service’s Escure station topped out at 53 miles per hour at 1:41 P.M.

Pullman topped out with a gust of 56 miles per hour at 12:11 p.m. Spangle sustained winds at 43 miles per hour, with gusts reaching to 51.

The winds kicked up dust, turning skies around the Palouse a light brown and limiting visibility.

Livingston said he spotted a massive cloud of creamy brown color from a high resolution satellite image.

“I know blowing dust was a real problem down across the basin and into the Palouse,” he said. “The dust plume was incredible.”

The wind storm came as a result of a low-pressure system that developed quickly in southern Alberta. That crossed a high pressure system blowing in from the Oregon Coast.

The clash of the two systems resulted in what Livingston called a powerful, rapid storm that brought the raging winds and rain.

Wind speeds eased back down to around 25 miles per hour Tuesday as the storm blew east over the Rockies.