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Old 03-14-2025, 11:01 PM   #1
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Extreme Texas winds flip semis like toys

Extreme Texas winds flip semis like toys on Interstate 40 around Amarillo!
Gusts reached up to 83 mph, creating dangerous travel conditions.
Imagine what it would do to Class A's and 5th wheels or travel trailers with not enough weight, especially being top light, to hold them down. Check out this video on Twitter.

https://x.com/accuweather/status/1900620212518719570
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Old 03-15-2025, 04:25 AM   #2
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I hope nobody involved was seriously injured.
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Old 03-15-2025, 05:33 AM   #3
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Top light is good, top heavy makes body roll and poor handling. The problem is the massive square footage of the side of a 52 ft. trailer in 83 mph wind.
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Old 03-15-2025, 07:08 AM   #4
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Why, in the name of sweet Fannie Adams, were the trucks still driving on the road? The truckers I know huddle up in a truck stop or rest area parking besides each other for protection.
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Old 03-15-2025, 07:34 AM   #5
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With our RVs we are essentially boxes of air with wheels. Class A's, with their heavy frames, engines and storage down low, are better for stability than towables, but not by much. When that big gust hits broadside you are along for the ride, and it is no fun.
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Old 03-15-2025, 08:20 AM   #6
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I travel to Texas in that area once a year. i am all cuddled up in the driver seat just cruising along. how do you get the info of wind gusts and know to stay of highways? I am from New England and not accustomed to getting that info
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Old 03-15-2025, 08:51 AM   #7
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wow!

i was on I-40 thru Amarillo in mid December; driving my 36' DP with toad back home from taking delivery. a little breeze is all we felt. no doubt there is nothing around there to break the wind.....i did notice all the wind farms there north of Amarillo. i'm sure that is no accident.

my DP is somewhat bottom heavy and shorter both height and length than some. plus the toad weight would help a little. but mother nature does not care.

watching that really scares me. i just need to avoid those events. in Seattle/West Coast we have trees, hills and mountains, and rarely get those sorts of 'plains' winds.

crazy stuff.
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Old 03-15-2025, 09:53 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by RV Vagabond View Post
Extreme Texas winds flip semis like toys on Interstate 40 around Amarillo!
Gusts reached up to 83 mph, creating dangerous travel conditions.
Imagine what it would do to Class A's and 5th wheels or travel trailers with not enough weight, especially being top light, to hold them down. Check out this video on Twitter.

https://x.com/accuweather/status/1900620212518719570

Been there done that in a dust storm no less! Actually started to deploy our lage awning. No fun.
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Old 03-15-2025, 10:07 AM   #9
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I travel to Texas in that area once a year. i am all cuddled up in the driver seat just cruising along. how do you get the info of wind gusts and know to stay of highways? I am from New England and not accustomed to getting that info
With all the modern technology used in traffic control something like a "High Wind Warning" would be posted on the electronic signs over the highway.
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Old 03-15-2025, 12:20 PM   #10
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Why, in the name of sweet Fannie Adams, were the trucks still driving on the road? The truckers I know huddle up in a truck stop or rest area parking besides each other for protection.
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With all the modern technology used in traffic control something like a "High Wind Warning" would be posted on the electronic signs over the highway.
The signs were telling drivers to get off the road. But truckers can be as hard headed as RVers. "I've driven in high winds before, I can handle this."

If you've never been to Amarillo, highway warning signs and truck stops outside the city are few and far between.

The only fatalities I've heard about were near Canyon - on I-27 25-35 miles south of I-27.

Most of the flip videos appear to be north/south bound travel, probably I-27 or US-287, not east/west on I-40.

There was a 95 mph gust recorded east of Las Cruces NM on the highway headed to Alamogordo (US-70). Occurred in San Augustine Pass just west of the White Sands Army base.

The one I find kind of funny, at about 24 seconds is the one with the trucker cranking down the front legs of the trailer. Not shown in that video, but on several news outlets is that once he got the legs down - the winds flipped the trailer completely off the truck.

It appears to me that most of the flipping rigs are empty. Which of course means they flip first in high winds.

I went through a thunderstorm line in New Mexico on I-10 in September 2020. East bound between Lordsburg and Deming.

The interstate was basically blocked because all the trucks and RVs stopped.

None flipped, but I did see two big rig trucks pushed off the road by flood waters crossing over the main west bound lanes of I-10. When we were allowed to pass near Exit 68, the water was about 5 inches deep in the eastbound lanes. (Flooding was caused by heavy rains up near Silver City.)
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Old 03-15-2025, 10:37 PM   #11
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I travel to Texas in that area once a year. i am all cuddled up in the driver seat just cruising along. how do you get the info of wind gusts and know to stay of highways? I am from New England and not accustomed to getting that info
You get information by listening to the weather stations. What happened certainly doesn't happen often and there were plenty of warnings to stay off the roads... especially interstates where it's wide open and drivers are going faster than they should.

When the weather reports say high winds that's the time to find a place to hunker down... not continue driving.

Those semi trucks should never have been driving in those conditions.
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Old 03-15-2025, 11:43 PM   #12
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You get information by listening to the weather stations. ......
I use gusts greater for 30 mph for planning when in a MH. When the sky turns brown in the semi arid west it is too windy to be on the road.

Recently I got a warning on my cell phone as I pulled into a NM state park.

Visibility can go to zero very quickly.
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Old 03-16-2025, 06:05 AM   #13
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I travel to Texas in that area once a year. i am all cuddled up in the driver seat just cruising along. how do you get the info of wind gusts and know to stay of highways? I am from New England and not accustomed to getting that info
You check the weather forecast along your route the day of departure, you have the Windy app installed on your smart device so you can get real time updates, and most modern day truckers radios have a dedicated weather channel that works with trucks GPS to provide alerts of severe weather in your current area
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Old 03-16-2025, 07:02 AM   #14
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"Sometimes I wonder what happened to folks after I give them directions."

now that's funny. you never see them again. LOL
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