Storms on the Peaks: Winter Wind

often cause some property damage. However, most of us who have lived here for a while have fastened things down as much as we can and everything else is in Kansas by now.

Weather was even more unpredictable when Enos Mills was the Snow Man than it is today. That is probably why he was so fascinated with learning how hard the wind blew and how deep the snow was. Mills' precariously collected wind data has since been verified with sturdier, more modern anemometers. A top wind speed of 201 mph has been recorded on Long's Peak. Wind speed to 170 mph has been recorded on Trail Ridge Road. In this article, I have focused on the wind, but I haven't really talked about that other major winter phenomenon, snow. So, next article will be about snow, from flakes to avalanches.

I will add a referral to The Spell of the Rockies, but I checked Barnes and Noble and found that it is out of print and not available. However, they have a link to used books available from a variety of dealers. The original version was published by Houghton Mifflin, but I was lucky enough to buy a soft bound copy published in 1989 by University of Nebraska Press. His books are illustrated with black and white photos he took himself. Quite a treasure.

Also, you might be able to find a copy of this book at your local library - just click on the Borrow link at the top of this article to search the card catalog at your own public library. I found copies of the original book, published in 1911, at the Fort Collins library.

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