Winter weather gave way to strong winds across most of Wyoming on Tuesday with the National Weather Service issuing High Wind Warnings for most of southeast Wyoming and the Cody Foothills, with winds gusting up to 70 mph.
That’s a gentle breeze compared to the strongest gust recorded in the last week in Wyoming. That was 120 mph on Mount Coffin in the mountains of Lincoln County in Western Wyoming just east of Smoot.
While winds have been measured at more than 100 mph in the Cowboy State before, it’s not usual. And 120 mph is just a breath away from the strongest wind gust ever recorded in Wyoming. That was 128 mph measured in Clark in 2022.
Even so, it’s not surprisingly strong wind for the top of Mount Coffin, which meteorologists already recognize as one of the windiest places in the Cowboy State.
“It’s possible that there were wind gusts even stronger that weren’t detected,” said meteorologist Joshua Rowe with the NWS office in Riverton. “It’s definitely one of the windiest spots in Wyoming where we have a sensor.”
At 120 mph, a gust can easily take people off their feet and can even make people feel like they’ve been physically pummeled, the NWS reports. It can also pick up objects and make them potential missiles that can hurt or kill. Downed power lines, tipping over vehicles and even knocking down buildings are hazards of gusts that strong.
Like Getting Hit By Lightning
At 11,255 feet, Mount Coffin is the second-tallest peak in the Wyoming range. Rowe said this makes it an incredibly windy place in an already wind-prone area.
“Because it's so high, the wind can be quite strong up there,” he said. “The topography of the area funnels the wind right along it. Wind speed increases quite a bit in that location.”
A powerful jet stream from the Pacific Ocean settled over Wyoming during the weekend. That winter weather system dropped several feet of snow in the western mountains and was strong enough to shut down northwest Wyoming with a foot of snow.
When the jet stream is that powerful, Rowe said it’s easy from extremely powerful winds to descend upon the highest points of the mountains. The winds aloft are usually much more powerful than anything that reaches the mountain tops, let alone the plains below.
“Over the last few days, we had jet stream winds of 120 to 140 mph, and possibly even a little bit higher than that up in the atmosphere,” he said. “When you have winds aloft that are that strong, it's not too hard to get it to mix and get into an area that’s already very wind prone.”
Just like lightning, the tallest places tend to attract the strongest winds, he said. That’s a cautionary tale any experienced mountaineer takes to heart.
Blown Off
Wyoming adventurer and author Sam Lightner Jr. hasn’t climbed Mount Coffin. For an experienced mountaineer, there’s not much there to grab onto, let alone trying to do it with dangerous winds whipping about.
“The mountains of the Wyoming range are mostly non-technical peaks,” he said. “They're more hiking peaks, one would say, and they're in an area where there’s not good climbing trails.”
A rookie might think the wind would be an additional challenge, adding to the allure of summiting Mount Coffin. Lightner knows that mentality will sooner send someone into a coffin rather than up to the top of Mount Coffin.
“Winds that strong could kill a climber,” he said. “If you were in a place where it was nearly vertical, you could not repel in those conditions. Your rope would be taken away from you and tied around things.”
Mount Coffin has a broader summit than many other mountains, almost resembling a plateau more than the second-highest point in the Wyoming range. However, that wouldn’t make it any safer during an intense wind event like the one recorded by the NWS.
Scientific analyses have determined that a 60- to 70-mph wind gust is enough to blow over a person, and 90 mph is enough to blow over most vehicles. The winds on Mount Coffin were two times that strong, putting them within the range of a Category 3 hurricane.
Where It’s Windiest
The strongest Wyoming wind gust ever recorded blew through Clark in northwest Wyoming. During an April 2022 windstorm, a wind gust was recorded at 128 mph.
Clark is perfectly positioned to be a wind tunnel like the entire state of Wyoming. It’s not surprising that Wyoming gets the worst of the wind.
A 120 mph gust on Mount Coffin is nothing to scoff at. Lightner considers these things when he chooses which mountain to climb.
“All over the world, the highest peaks catch the strongest winds, but that’s not necessarily true for the entire range,” he said. “You could 120 mph winds on top of the Grand, but it might only be blowing 50 mph at the top of Disappointment Peak, which is three-quarters of a mile east. The Grand is catching and blocking a lot of that wind.”
Experienced climbers would probably still try to avoid a mountain with 50 mph winds at its summit, but that could be manageable with the proper technique and equipment. Anyone on Mount Coffin during the 120-mph gust might have found themselves taking a long ride down off the top, only to meet a sudden, tragic end below.
“Those winds could pick you up and carry you off the mountain,” Lightner said. “You’d probably be walking rather than climbing, but you almost certainly wouldn’t be able to get down unless you’re blown off.”
Sensor Safety
Rowe said Mount Coffin is one of the highest places in Wyoming where an NWS sensor has been installed. That critical infrastructure provides valuable information from up high that can warn and inform everyone below.
“Most of those sensors will give us temperature, dew point, humidity along with wind direction and speed,” he said. “Mount Coffin is also an avalanche sensor for Bridger-Teton National Forest, so it’s used to monitor the conditions on the mountain top and get an idea of the potential for avalanches.”
This makes Mount Coffin a life-saving peak in western Wyoming, even if its winds have the potential to blow someone into oblivion.
“We don't have many sensors at elevations that high,” Rowe said. “It gives us an idea of what’s going on at the top of those peaks.”
No Idea On The Name
Mount Coffin isn’t an especially popular peak for climbers. With winds that strong, that might not be surprising, but its remote location and lack of technical challenge means it’s mostly devoid of climbers.
As for the name, there aren’t any fatal incidents associated with Mount Coffin. Lightner chalks it up to a quirk of the Wyoming range.
“You might never know where some of these names come from,” he said. “There’s around four Black Mountains in Fremont County, so there might be more Mount Coffins I’m unaware of. It’s a pretty but not very popular place in the Wyoming Range.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
