Perhaps no one had a stranger New Year’s Eve than motorists and state troopers who spent the night on a lonely stretch of highway in Washington state where a freak windstorm left several cars buried under a mountain of blowing snow tumbleweeds.
The blizzard of brittle bushes struck on State Route 240 near Richland, Wash., late on New Year’s Eve, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Thorson. Thorson posted video footage and several photos of what he called “tumblegeddon” on Twitter, saying the tumbleweeds were piled “20-30 feet” (6.1 to 9.1 metres) high in some places.
“In the 20 years that I have worked here, I have never seen it as bad as this,” Thorson told NPR. “I’ve never seen six to eight cars, including a semi-truck, actually stopped and trapped on a highway because of tumbleweeds.”
Photos show what looks like an old-timey cowboy’s worst nightmare, with bundles of dried-out weeds piled high around several vehicles.
Thorson said tumbleweeds occasionally interfere with traffic on SR 240 because it runs through a desert plateau.
“The only time they really become an issue is when we have high winds,” he said.
The trouble likely started when a few tumbleweeds got caught in bushes at the edge of the road, Thorson said. Cars slowed down to avoid the weeds, then strong wind blew more weeds onto the road, effectively burying all the stationary cars.
Police started receiving calls about the tumbleweed traffic jam around 6:30 p.m. State troopers and transportation workers arrived at the scene to find some of the vehicles completely hidden from view.
Authorities shut down the road and brought in heavy plows to help remove the tumbleweeds.
Crews managed to clear the road by 4:30 a.m.
“A pretty incredible sight,” the Washington State Department of Transportation East tweeted after the road had been cleared. “Big thanks to our crews who worked through the night to clear the roadway.”
Police say there were no collisions or injuries, although one driver abandoned her car at the scene.
Perhaps she didn’t want to spend her New Year’s Eve as the needle in a 30-foot haystack.