A Climatological Study of Wind Systems of the United States Intermountain West

Two years of surface wind observations collected by the MesoWest - Cooperative Mesonets in the Western United States are used to examine the characteristics of wind systems of the Intermountain West including thermally-driven circulations in the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, and Tooele and Salt Lake Valleys of northern Utah. Summer and wintertime regimes are compared and contrasted, and the interaction between the synoptic flow, mesoscale terrain, and local thermally-driven circulations is examined. Complex interactions between thermally-driven circulations of the Great Salt Lake and surrounding topography will also be described. Representing a rare attempt to document the complex wind regimes of the western United States, the study will be of value to boundary-layer and air pollution meteorologists, fire weather forecasters, and operational meteorologists.