From high 90s over the weekend, to the 50s and heavy rain on Tuesday, the one constant was damaging winds that pummeled the area for most of four days.
Yuma luckily avoided any major damage. However, neighboring towns to the west and north of Yuma were not so lucky.
Akron was victimized overnight Monday into Tuesday by extremely-damaging winds. W-Y Combined Communications reported that the National Weather Service out of Goodland, Kansas, stated a 102 mile per hour microburst had hit Akron.
Pictures and videos showed damage all over town. Particularly hit hard was grain elevator area by the railroad tracks just south of the downtown area, but it appeared the whole community was hit, with some houses even having some of their roof blown off.
Y-W Electric reported the majority of Railroad Street sustained major damage, knocking out power to the businesses in Akron. Y-W also reported approximately one mile of line down south of Akron along Highway 63, as well as a line down north of Akron along CR DD.
There also was extensive overnight damage north and east of Akron over into the Haxtun area. Haxtun also reportedly had quite a bit of damage.
Highline Electric Association, which includes parts of northern Yuma County and Phillips County, reported Tuesday that it had approximately 100 poles to replace, with outages in multiple areas of its service territory.
The high winds were throughout the region. Besides the 102 mph burst in Akron, wind reports from the National Weather Service showed gusts ranging from the high 50s to the low 70s all over the area.
At least the region got a soaking rain, though the benefits overall were minimized by the winds. The Yuma area received approximately one-half inch, Monday.
The rain was desperately needed following a weekend of strong winds and temperatures in the 90s.
Saturday’s high was 94 degrees with an average wind of 37 mph. Sunday’s high was 99 with similar consistent wind gusts.
There was at least one tree toppled in Yuma on Saturday, and there was some damage in rural areas south of town, where some residents reported it seemed like microburst was the cause.
There were a few power outages in the countryside. Y-W Electric reported 14 poles broken by the wind over the weekend.
Yuma and Wray each experienced power outages on Sunday.
Yuma City Manager Scott Moore said there were several outages caused by the combination of high temperatures and the high winds. The city’s electrical staff worked most of the afternoon and into the evening resolving the problems, he said.
Moore said he did not know the total number of people affected, but the outage did involve the center circuit, which feeds Main St., south to the high school and east as far as the Eagle convenience store.
Monday ended up providing a reprieve, with cooler temperatures and somewhat calmer winds.
Still, there was trouble as the town of Eckley was without power for several hours. Mayor Jessie Vance said the outage lasted from about 10:30 a.m. to almost 4 p.m.
Y-W Electric reported it was caused by a problem at the substation.
Then came the crazy winds, cold temperatures and the rain over night into Tuesday.
Weather conditions were to calm after Tuesday, with highs ranging from 75 to the low 90s, with little wind and no precipitation, from Wednesday through the weekend.
