Wind speeds for 2008; exodus

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:21 am

I was curious about wind speeds in 2007 during the storms, so I asked santa for a pocket weather station, and she brought me a Kestrel. I hadn't even gotten it out of the van on Monday when the storms hit, and I wasn't about to open the van in that blast, so ARRRRRGGGGG! I didn't get the speeds.

I got it out right _after_, though, and on Saturday, I clocked the winds at from 5 to 10 MPH generally, with gusts in the high teens, fastest gust at 19.4 MPH.

I emailed BLM about Monday, and the answer I got today was 30MPH, gusts to 40. I believe it. Our shade was really shivered and slammed on Monday, but not on Saturday.

I have no official numbers, but Louise and I think more people than usual left on Saturday during the dust storm and before the Burn. I heard Sunday was the sucks, but we flagged on Monday afternoon, and traffic was moving a steady, reasonably quick pace on the road into Gerlach. We were at the Y just outside Gerlach, and the people we asked said it took about 45 minutes to get off the playa and about 45 minutes to get from first blacktop to the Y. That's not bad.

somekind · Post by **somekind** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:15 pm

The weather forecast was for windy on Monday, so we skipped that. Tuesday was great, but the forecast is only good for three days, so anything after that is just a mystery.

I survived the dust storms, but they aren't as good as when you have a trailer with some pretty girls in it.

Fire_Moose · Post by **Fire_Moose** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:05 am

I loved Sunday night...that was great...other then being down wind at the temple burn...

phil · Post by **phil** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:04 am

Fire_Moose wrote:I loved Sunday night...that was great...other then being down wind at the temple burn...

Yeah, that was a lesson Louise and I learned early on - never sit downwind at any burn.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 2:57 pm

Look here:

http://www.dongrays.com/burningman2008/

Apparently there was at least one gust over 45mph on Monday.

phil · Post by **phil** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:24 pm

> Apparently there was at least one gust over 45mph on Monday.

I'm not sure what his source is. He says "information from Gerlach, NV weather station," which links to BMOrg's Website for Gerlach.

I had my little REI keychain thermometer, and it said we had highs in the 70s for a couple of days. He shows a high of 70 only on the 31st.

I won't argue over highest gust of 40 or 45. shrug - it was dang windy Monday.

dragonpilot · Post by **dragonpilot** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:08 pm

We had enough tent/structure/vehicle density in our camp that there was no damage or loss of tents, etc....just the dust to contend with. Can't complain tho with the better part of 4 1/2 days of great weather. Saturday was tolerable, as was Sunday. I skipped the Temple Burn...busy getting packed to leave, but the rest of the crew went out and braved it...laughing all the way out and back.

Surprised it only took us about 2 hours to reach the hardball during Exodus. We left at 12:38 AM Monday, hit the hardball at 2:44 AM. We left at 1:20 AM last year and took us 3 1/2 hours to cover the same distance...better controlled Exodus or most folks stayed hunkered down due to the earlier whiteout? Air was pristine when we left.