National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

Low pressure moving across Nebraska and strong jet stream winds over Kansas produced extremely windy conditions across the High Plains.  Surface winds were southwest at 35 to 50 mph with gusts to 70 mph for an eight hour period.  The strong winds produced areas of blowing dust which reduced visibilities to less than one mile at times.  Peak wind gusts included:

Goodland, Kansas...58 mph                

 Colby, Kansas...59 mph

Burlington, Colorado...58 mph              

 St. Francis, Kansas...59 mph

McCook, Nebraska...60 mph                 

 Trenton, Nebraska...53 mph

Hoxie, Kansas...60 mph                      

 Lenora, Kansas...55 mph

The strongest wind gust was reported by a volunteer observer: 68 mph approximately 9 miles northeast of Kit Carson, Colorado

A 17 car pile up occurred on Interstate 70 approximately 10 miles east of Burlington, Colorado.  High winds produced blowing dust with near zero visibilities on the interstate around 11:30 AM MDT.  The Colorado State Patrol closed Interstate 70 in both directions between Burlington and the Kansas state line for four hours due to the accident and continued strong winds and reduced visibilities. 

A grass fire, aided by the winds and low relative humidity, was reported in southeast Graham county, Kansas.