No, not a side trip to Chicago - just another day in Amarillo.
Not long after we arrived in Amarillo we went to the airport to visit the Air & Space Museum. While there we noticed it was quite windy and the lady who checked us in mentioned it was typically like that in Amarillo. In fact, she said Amarillo is the windiest city in the US. This lady was one of the volunteers at the museum and looked like she knew what she was talking about.
When we got back home I checked it out and found out she was right. Amarillo is the windiest metropolitan area in the United States. According to Wikipedia, Chicago got the name Windy City from a rivalry with Cincinnati in the late 1870’s. Both cities were competing to host the 1880 Republican National Convention, and the term was used by the group in Cincinnati to take a jab at the political leaders from Chicago implying they were full of hot air and empty promises. The convention was in fact held in Chicago that year, confirming politicians are full of hot air and empty promises. It would appear politics were a lot more civil back then, and it seems like a lot of cities could hold that title these days.
Since we have been here we have seen three low pressure systems form just north of us and become some of the worst spring storms the Midwest and Eastern seaboard have seen in while. For readers in Canada you will have heard about the storms originating from Alberta referred to as Alberta Clippers due to their origin and speed. You have no doubt also heard of the Colorado low. Amarillo is only 200 miles south of the southern border of Colorado and these Colorado lows form in the southeastern portion of that state. The area centered around Northwest Texas, Northeast New Mexico and Southeast Colorado is in an interesting location, and topography has a lot to do with this being as windy as it is.
Once the beginning of storm systems blow over the Rockies, the winds come flying down the Eastern side and hit the open plains where there are barely any trees or obstructions to slow things down. Most days the wind is in the teens to low twenties, but when these low pressure systems form, the winds easily get up in the forties and fifties with gusts into the sixties and higher. I think everyone that is used to the weather here believe anything less than 15 mile per hour winds is considered calm.
You may have seen the news recently about the trucks that flipped over on the interstate in Northern Texas. That was about five miles from here. Same with the huge pileup in Canyon, Texas. Canyon is about ten miles from here and is the town near the entrance to the Palo Duro Canyon. Because there are so many cattle ranches around here the amount of dust that blows up during these events brings the visibility to extremely low values and even becomes so thick it obscures the sun.
The first storm we experienced resulted in consistently very high gusts, and I am surprised there were no small RV trailers affected. The park bolts down all picnic tables but even a few of those were damaged. Two small trees came down and some of their wind fencing was blown down.
To prepare for these storms we brought in all our slides and retracted the stabilizing jacks. Our coach weighs 41,000 pounds and the manufacturer recommends bringing in the slides and retracting the jacks in very high winds. Different people have different opinions on the definition of high winds, and some keep their slides out and jacks down all the time. The higher the wind the more the side loading when the wind is coming from the side, and you would be stressing either the jack mechanism or the attach points to the frame if all the weight was carried on the jacks in those circumstances. If nothing else, the coach has suspension designed for loads well in excess of those experienced in strong wind so I think that is the safest course to take.
So if the wind is coming from the side consistently over 30 mph we retract the jacks and bring in the slides. If the wind is from the front or back we don’t need to do much as the frontal area is small enough the jacks can handle it. We are fortunate we can still move around and use the coach normally with the slides retracted, and it is only for a short period usually so better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks for stopping by to read.