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| Columbia loaded for trip home- George Swickard |
© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. After college my first professional
job was in television production. The Albuquerque station had a weatherman who was
interesting because he was not from New Mexico. The annual spring winds upset
him. In fact, when you asked about the next day’s weather anytime during the
year he answered, “Windy boy, windy.”
And it is time for New Mexico’s
annual spring winds. Some people are quite upset with them while the rest of us
usually shrug and go about our business. Sometimes we even find humor in the
winds.
A tourist from back east pulled up
to a restaurant at the same time as me and was having trouble keeping ahold of
his hat. “My God,” he exclaimed with a look of horror at the dust and debris
flying by, “Does the wind always blow like this in New Mexico?”
“Nope,” I said and smiled. “Sometimes
it comes from the other direction.” The man was shocked by the violence of the
dust. I could not resist. “But the wind right now isn’t blowing enough to pick
up scorpions and rattlesnakes so you should be fine. Watch out when the wind
really picks up, they can drop right out of the sky.”
The man could not get out of New
Mexico quickly enough. Our Chambers of Commerce hate it when we play with the
tourists. And in March and April each year there is plenty of wind to play with
tourists. The truth is that if you were born in New Mexico and the winds in
spring start blowing dust, you will not have a surprised look on your face.
One bright spot if you are heading
east. A couple years ago I went from Las Cruces to Roswell almost not using any
gas in my truck. I felt pretty good about the wind until I drove back to Las
Cruces and almost used a tank of gas.
I feel bad for high profile vehicles
since the wind often plays the devil with handling and sometimes even just
keeping all four wheels on the ground. Some of the roads in New Mexico are
closed in bad dust storms because there can suddenly be zero visibility with the
possibility of a big wreck involving many vehicles.
One of the almost lost stories of
wind in New Mexico involves the only time when a NASA Space Shuttle landed in
our state. More to the point, what is rarely referenced is the windy day before
Space Shuttle Columbia landed.
In 1976 Northrup Strip was selected
by NASA as a Space Shuttle training and backup landing facility. We now call that
facility the White Sands Space Harbor at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
New Mexico was halfway between shuttle landing areas at Edwards Air Force Base
in California and the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida.
STS-3 was launched in March 1982 as
a seven-day mission but excessive rain in California flooded the landing area there.
So the Northrup Strip at White Sands Missile Range was selected. However, it
was spring wind season. On the scheduled landing day, it was a nasty dusty day
of high winds and low visibility.
The network news programs showed a
New Mexico straight out of a Chamber of Commerce nightmare. It looked like a hurricane
except it was dust instead of water. One reporter opined that the Space Shuttle
Columbia might never be able to land in New Mexico.
Not so. The next day at about nine
in the morning it was a glorious New Mexico morning as if there had never been
a dust storm. About twenty thousand people were at the landing strip and
millions watched on television as Columbia landed. So we rarely mention the
Wind Hall of Fame day that proceeded the landing.
Best way to deal with the wind is to
expect the coat of dust and not get too worked up about it. We have been having
these dust storms in New Mexico for the last two-hundred and eighty million
years, come next August so don’t be surprised.
My advice: get yourself a beverage
and stay inside with a good book. It’s going to be windy boy, windy.
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