Weather leaves residents, trees wind-blown

Steady winds at 50 mph is uncommon for June in southwest Nebraska.
Sunday recorded winds in Imperial at 45 mph and gusts up to 62 mph.
Monday showed speeds up to 40 mph and gusts to 53 mph, but those winds came from a different direction than Sunday.
“That’s common to see in March, but it’s certainly been a pretty unique situation for June,” said John Stoppkotte, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Platte.
“In March we don’t have leaves on the trees yet. So, you know, it’s possible having leaves on the trees may have created kind of maybe a little bit of an extra load,” he added.
Tuesday showed winds up to 44 mph and gusts up to 66 mph. That morning, a tree at the courthouse lost a large branch to the high winds from the previous night.
County roads workers were out looking at it Wednesday morning, but Planning and Zoning Administrator Billie Muehlenkamp said she isn’t sure when the tree cleanup will be completely taken care of.
Tuesday brought 0.43 inches of moisture. The winds also knocked down a tree branch that went through a power line at 16th and Grant Streets.
“The power wasn’t out very long,” Imperial Public Works Director Pat Davison said. “We’re pretty lucky that’s all that happened.”
City workers took care of cleaning up branches at city parks and at Mount Hope Cemetery.