West Storm A Cornucopia of Severe Weather

The latest storm to affect the West Coast has dropped two inches of hail and funnel clouds in Fresno, according to NWS Spotter reports. Heavy snow is falling at the California ski resorts and a dust storm closed I-40 near Winslow, Arizona. Dodge Ridge Ski Resort reports 28 inches in the last two days, with 30 inches at Kirkwood. In the Rockies, the storm has caused wind gusts to over 100 mph. At the end of the video below you can see the California hail and associated traffic accidents:

Here's a list of top wind gusts:

Hickison Summit, Nevada: 114 mph
Mammoth Mountain, CA: 98 mph
Boulder, Colorado: 96 mph
Eagle, CO: 94 mph*
Mount Abrahms, CO: 88 mph
Soldier Mountain, Idaho: 84 mph (high winds still ongoing)

And in Minnesota frequent lightning lit up the night sky last night; storm chaser Doug Kiesling got it on film:

*Out of this entire list of wind gusts, only the Eagle reading was reported via NWS Spotter reports. What they also didn't report was that Eagle claimed to have suddenly gusted to 192 mph -- but I don't buy that either. From the graph, the gust is not consistent with surrounding points or the sustained wind speeds, and was therefore labeled "Suspect" by the quality control algorithm at Mesowest. Yes, sudden gusts far above the normal threshold do happen, but only in extreme circumstances - it's much more likely that the equipment malfunctioned.