Finally, 100 mph Winds!

2006-10-21 10:51:15.000 – Mike Renzi,  Summit Intern

Snow drift in front of the Yankee Building, taken

What an exciting night! I got to experience my first 100+ mph wind gust, 105 mph to be exact. We were expecting the winds to get nasty overnight last night, so naturally, Neil, Jon, and I went outside around 10pm at night. We stepped out onto the deck and I thought I could handle it no problem but Neil told me we weren’t in the full force of the wind yet. This was because the wind was going over the side of the deck and coming back down towards the middle of the deck. So I took a few steps toward the middle and got literally blown over, unable to hold my balance, and went right down grabbing onto the cracks between the concrete blocks.

I had never experienced a force that powerful before. It definitely didn’t humble me, however, as after I crawled back to a safe spot, I got up and went back into it again! This time I went with Neil and Jon much farther down towards the end of the deck, but a different problem arose: my face mask wasn’t letting enough air in through the mouth and nose holes due to the pressure the wind created from blowing across the holes. Halfway back to a safe area I had to rip my face mask off so I could breathe again.

Of course, even the middle of the deck isn’t getting the full force of the wind, so we ventured up to the top of the tower. We each took turns going up to the parapet to experience the full force of 100+ mph winds. Neil and Jon doing Matrix moves into the wind, and me trying to hold on and not fall over. The peak gust overnight was 129 mph. Only one word can describe the force that winds like that create: awesome.

Photo taken by Mike Pelchat, State Park Manager

Mike Renzi,  Summit Intern