Idaho, 2025High Wind in Idaho, April 12, 2025
April 12, 2025 · NWS PIH · 2 events in 2 counties and zones
A strong cold front brought very high winds to the Upper Snake River Plain during the afternoon of the 12th.
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- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
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- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 2
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.
A strong cold front brought very high winds to the Upper Snake River Plain during the afternoon of the 12th.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Pocatello, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 12, 12:42 PM MST, 18 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
- Very windy Saturday through the Snake River Plain and at higher elevations, with gust potential exceeding 50 mph. Blowing dust possible.
- High pressure returns early next week with dry warming trend.
- Potential for a storm system later next week, but uncertainty is quite high.
Area forecast discussion, Apr 12, 12:42 PM MST, 18 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pocatello ID
142 PM MDT Sat Apr 12 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Very windy Saturday through the Snake River Plain and at higher
elevations, with gust potential exceeding 50 mph. Blowing dust
possible.
- High pressure returns early next week with dry warming trend.
- Potential for a storm system later next week, but uncertainty
is quite high.
&&
.SHORT TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT/...
Issued at 142 PM MDT Sat Apr 12 2025
Surface front has progressed through most of East Idaho by early
this afternoon, and should be completely through by later afternoon
or early evening. Satellite imagery shows rapid clearing behind the
front, with some cloud cover lingering over higher elevations. A few
showers remain possible this afternoon and early this evening mainly
along the Wyoming border, and a thunderstorm will not be out of the
question. In the Snake Plain behind the front, winds have picked up
and should reach peak speeds between 3 and 6pm with a 40-60% chance
of gusts exceeding 50 mph in that time frame mainly across the Arco
Desert and through the I-84 corridor between Burley and the UT
border. The Wind Advisory will remain in place through 8pm. A few
locations may still be windy by mid-evening, but the trend is for
rapid drop off through the remainder of the evening. Did not have to
tweak wind speeds or gusts beyond what fell out of the NBM for this
afternoon, as most recent blend was very close to previous
forecasts. Did keep the patchy blowing dust in place. Temperatures
dip back to around or below freezing for a significant portion of
the Snake Plain tonight, and daytime highs Sunday some 10 degrees
cooler than today. The cool temperatures continue Sunday night,
once again near to just below freezing for most lower
elevations.
&&
.LONG TERM /MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/...
Issued at 142 PM MDT Sat Apr 12 2025
The early part of next week still looks dry and warmer as
advertised. Midweek onward looks very chaotic to say the least.
Just 24 hours ago, the models and supermajority of the clusters
were banking on a ridge building ahead of split flow and a
closed low trying to move in from the south. Today, the models
(GFS and ECMWF) are taking the northern end of the split and
making it the dominant part of the pattern and developing a
closed low from it...and dropping it south across Idaho. The
clusters have also flipped a bit and semi-following this change.
About 35% of the clusters show this exact idea happening, about
45-50% show yesterday's idea and the rest show something in
between. With the switch in ensembles and clusters toward
something like the regular GFS/ECMWF forecast, our Blend of
Models have moved that direction as well. It is wetter and drops
highs back into the 50s/60s down low. We have a feeling we will
see one or m
&&
.AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z SUNDAY/...
Issued at 142 PM MDT Sat Apr 12 2025
Gusty winds will continue to decrease across the area this
evening. In fact, we will see them turn northerly overnight.
What shower/thunderstorm activity lingering around DIJ should
also end this evening. The northerly flow will likely keep some
low to mid level stratus around PIH and BYI (and even to some
extent IDA), but we are not expecting enough to go below VFR.
This will continue into Sunday. In terms of SUN, northerly winds
tonight and Sunday morning will likely be elevated in this
pattern. However, we should see a switch to the usual southerly
wind back up into the Wood River Valley in the afternoon.
&&
.PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
Wind Advisory until 8 PM MDT this evening for IDZ051>057-067-
068.
&&
SHORT TERM...DMH
LONG TERM...Keyes
AVIATION...Keyes
High Wind, Arco-Mud Lake Desert
- When
- April 12, 1:00 PM MST to 9:00 PM MST
- Where
- Arco-Mud Lake Desert forecast zone
- Measured
- 56 kt (64 mph) measured gust
- Reported by
- Department of Highways
- Coordinates
- 43.537, -112.374 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
A strong cold front brought extremely high wind gusts and blowing dust to the Arco and Mud Lake Desert region. A peak of 65 mph was measured at Camas with 63 miles per hour at Terreton. Several locations measured 55 to 61 mph gusts through the afternoon of the 12th.
High Wind, Upper Snake River Plain
- When
- April 12, 1:00 PM MST to 9:00 PM MST
- Where
- Upper Snake River Plain forecast zone
- Measured
- 52 kt (60 mph) measured gust
- Reported by
- Department of Highways
- Coordinates
- 43.805, -111.767 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Widespread wind gusts of 55 to 60 mph occurred during the afternoon of the 12th with blowing dust reported. The highest gust was 60 mph measured west of Osgood. Widespread 50 to 55 mph gusts occurred with both the Idaho Falls and Rexburg ASOS sites measuring over 50 mph gusts.
- High Wind
- Sustained non-thunderstorm winds of 40 mph or more for an hour, or gusts of 58 mph or more.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
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: 1268706, 1268707.