Hmmm - this is interesting reading, especially since we are holed up in our 19'
Escape at the moment in the Alabama Hills area just west of Lone Pine, CA. Starting yesterday around noon a huge wind storm arrived over this entire region. Winds yesterday were sustained at 25-40 MPH with gusts over 50. I saw online yesterday that a gust was recorded at 84 MPH in Independence, CA (just north of us). I heard that some gusts here were over 60 MPH. We knew this storm was coming and had to just hole up somewhere. To travel on in the blowing dust and crosswinds would have been more dangerous than stopping. Portions of I395 south of Lone Pine were closed to high profile vehicles and the streets of Lone Pine were lined with semis waiting out the storm.
We parked our rig with the back facing into the direction of the wind, kept all our
windows and vents closed, and made sure our
tires were well chocked and our stabilizer jacks down tight. Yesterday we rocked and rolled a lot and at times it was very nerve wracking. One especially strong gust felt like a giant had picked up a giant sized handful of sand and pebbles and thrown it at our trailer. The blowing dust was insane too.
But we're still upright and today the wind has come down some. We even managed to get out for a little sight seeing. I ran the figures given at the start of the thread and it looks like we'd be OK up to about 90 MPH or so. Hope to never have to ride out a storm with those kinds of winds.