Too windy to ride for long

The weather guessers were wrong with the forecast for today. We were supposed to get from 6-11 inches of snow depending on which guesser you listened to.

We awoke to wet looking streets and a dusting of snow on the grassy areas. Not that I minded of course, as I hoped to ride later in the afternoon.

I left the house around 3:30PM, the sun was shining though it was a mostly cloudy sky. The roads were dry and it was a bit windy in my neighborhood.

As I road out of the neighborhood, northbound on Himalaya Road, the sun went away and it got windier. It was a wind that gusted strongly from the North but it didn't feel too bad.

I headed over to the Plains Conservation Center to see if some interesting cloud formations might be had, nothing. Nothing but stronger winds!

I then foolishly turned East onto Hampden Road and really got slammed as I rode along towards Gun Club road. I was having to steer slightly to the left just to maintain a straight line as the wind tried to push me to the right. Yeah, death grip time.

I made it to the junction with Gun Club Road and thankfully turned South to have the winds at my back. It got real quiet as I rode then, as it usually does when one has the wind at one's back.

The winds were not too bad by the time I turned back West onto Quincy Road and from there to my home neighborhood roads. There were moments when frozen ice particles blew about the pavement like little wind dervishes.....of course by the time I stopped and got the camera, they were gone.


The above shows the stats for the nearest weather station for the stretch of Hampden road from the Plains Conservation center to the junction with Gun Club Road.

Only a max of 45 mph in terms of wind as you can see, felt much stronger though when it was hitting me broadside!