A strong weather front passed through the Panhandle and eastern Wyoming on Wednesday evening, triggering high winds that in turn caused localized power outages in many areas starting around 8 PM.
Nebraska Public Power District says its largest in terms of customers was about 900 in the Scottsbluff-Terrytown area, but other outages were reported in Minatare, in the Kimball area, northeast of Scottsbluff, and west of Chadron.
The highest recorded wind was gust of 105 mph at 8:10 about 11 miles west-southwest of Cheyenne, but the Panhandle had pretty good gusts as well.
The Western Nebraska Regional Airport east of Scottsbluff recorded an 86-mph gust just 2 minutes after the Cheyenne-area gust while the Chadron Airport’s automated weather system showed a 67 mph gust between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.
The Panhandle remains under a high wind warning through 11:00 Friday morning with steady winds of 30-40 mph and gusts as high as 65.