August 31, 2010
By: Carrie Van Brunt
A powerful windstorm last Saturday afternoon in West Yellowstone, Montana knocked down trees and damaged several homes as it progressed from the southwest corner northeast through the town.
The storm featured wind gusts of up to 85 miles per hour, but was not classified as a tornado by the National Weather Service, since the funnel clouds it generated never touched the ground. National Weather Service meteorologist Ben Schott told the Billings Gazette that "most of the damaged roofs had a significant overhang. It's easy for straight-line winds at those speeds to get under there and peel that back."
Another NWS meteorologist, Michael Mercer, spoke to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, saying that the residents of West Yellowstone were actually lucky that the storm struck when it did, given that there would have been many more people around had it hit just two hours later. As it was, nobody was killed or injured in the storm, although one man was lifted bodily from the ground as he attempted to close a door against the storm's winds, Mercer said.
Estimates of home insurance losses and other damage were not yet available.
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