Mountainous heaps of tumbleweeds reached as high as rooftops, covered yards and sidewalks and spilled onto roadways, creating a scene that "shocked" one woman who lives in the neighborhood.Towering walls of tumbleweeds piled up against houses and buried sidewalks as strong winds impacted Great Falls, Montana, on Oct. 17.
Great Falls resident Peyton Johnson, who lives in the affected neighborhood, told KRTV, a local TV station, that while tumbleweeds are not too unusual, she has never seen them pile up quite like they did on Tuesday. Tumbleweeds piled up in front of a home in the Great Falls area of central Montana on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, as high winds tore through the region. The weeds covered front yards and spilled over roadways.
The"moisture-starved front" triggered only a trace of precipitation in Great Falls, he explained. The westerly and west-northwesterly winds blew down off the higher terrain of the region, further enhancing the wind speeds, a common pattern in central Montana, Pydynowski said.