A persistent westerly flow aloft over Colorado brought yet another round of high winds to areas in and near the Front Range Foothills. Several locations reported hurricane force winds with peak gusts from 100 to 120 mph.
Every event with a place to put it; 5 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BOU wrote it up.
A persistent westerly flow aloft over Colorado brought yet another round of high winds to areas in and near the Front Range Foothills. Several locations reported hurricane force winds with peak gusts from 100 to 120 mph. Seven hundred residents in the foothills were left without power for nearly 4 hours as high winds downed trees and power lines. Communities affected by the outage included: Beaver Brook, Blue Valley, Conifer, Estes Park, Evergreen and Floyd Hill. In addition, a wall of a building under contruction in Lafayette was toppled, a semi-truck was blown over near the Boulder turnpike damaging a concrete barrier, and a 60-ft tree crushed a parked pickup truck at a Denver residence.High wind reports from around the area included: an estimated 120 mph (105 kts) at Blackhawk, 115 mph (100 kts) at Aspen Springs and 15 miles west of Fort Collins, and an estimated 110 mph (96 kts) 1 mile east of Buckhorn Mtn, 105 mph (91 kts) 2 1/2 miles north of Estes Park, 100 mph (87 kts) at Silver Spruce Ranch, 78 mph (68 kts) 9 miles west-northwest of Rustic, 75 mph (65 kts) atop Shanahan Ridge near Boulder, 74 mph (64 kts) 8 miles west of Conifer, and 71 mph (61 kts) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Test Facility.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
5 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, December 1996
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5581096, 5581097, 5581098, 5581099, 5581100.