Tumbleweeds invade Utah neighborhoods by the thousands, reaching up to 10 feet high
“Luckily, it’s something we can handle,” said Rachel Van Cleave, South Jordan communications manager. “This is not our first tumble-mageddon.”
Massive piles of tumbleweeds buried vehicles amid windy conditions in Utah on March 2.
Blowing tumbleweeds are a staple of movies depicting the Old West, rolling across vast and desolate landscapes; however, residents of several towns in Utah say they could do without.
High winds during a storm in parts of Utah and Nevada over the weekend sent the prickly bushes into neighborhoods in the Salt Lake City metro area. Several cities have been inundated with tumbleweeds piling up so high and dense that they have blocked roads, surrounded houses and buried cars.
The winds blew thousands of weeds into piles up to 10 feet high in some places in South Jordan, located about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. Similar scenes unfolded in Eagle Mountain, farther to the south. "The city strongly discourages pushing the tumbleweeds into the street. This will not get them cleared any faster and creates traffic safety issues in the community," officials wrote on Facebook.
According to local news outlet KSL TV, residents of South Jordan plowed the weeds with hoes and shovels before city workers arrived with garbage trucks to clean up.
“You take pictures, you take videos and you hope the wind changes," South Jordan resident John Young told KSL TV. "We’ve had a few tumbleweeds, but nothing like this, It’s absolutely crazy.”
One X user shared an AccuWeather video of the tumbleweeds and said that South Jordan looked like a scene straight out of a Western movie, calling it "Mother nature's tumbleweed takeover."
“Luckily, it’s something we can handle,” said Rachel Van Cleave, South Jordan communications manager. “This is not our first tumble-mageddon.”
City officials set up several dumpster locations dedicated to tumbleweeds as they worked to clear neighborhoods and roads.
Tumbleweeds are formed by a weed called Russian thistle, which is highly invasive in North America. Its ability to spread prolifically makes it a threat to ecosystems, human health, and the economy.
As Russian thistle matures, it goes from a soft seedling to a stiff and spiny plant. In some areas, infestations grew to the point that plowing became impossible and there were extensive crop losses. The arrival and spread of Russian thistle is considered to be one of the fastest plant invasions in the history of the United States. Today, the plant is found in all states except Alaska and Florida.
Each winter, after maturing and dying, the bushy part snaps off at the root and blows away, tumbling across the landscape and dispersing seeds that will eventually grow into new Russian thistle plants. One plant may produce thousands of seeds, which remain viable for years.
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