Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I'm considering a cross country tour. The route would probably take me on a rough line from Columbus, OH to Denver.
For a number or reasons, I'd rather ride east to west, but I'm curious about how strong and prevalent the prevailing westerlies are. I'm not in a mood to fight strong winds for a thousand miles, so would reverse direction if that's likely.
So, those who've done the ride, what were the winds in the plains like? Should I really factor them, or they're not enough of an issue, and I should stick to my "Go West..." plan?
Thanks
Reminder, I can use a weather map, so I'm looking only for first hand experience.
Nebraska native. Lots of miles north/south/east/central. Nothing you can do about the wind. You plan for it, it'll be different. As said, break camp at the crack of dawn and get to your destination by lunch, and you won't get hit bad by the worst of it.
Nebraska in particular can be a bit like Zeeland or Normandy. There's minimal wind blockage so winds have a chance to build off the Rockies....except the (gently) roller-y topography makes for gusty conditions. Some river valleys given the (wrong) conditions can act like windtunnels. We did a ride from Callaway-Holdredge one year. That was hell on earth. 30MPH sustained surface winds in a flat-flat river valley with no wind blocks for 80 miles.
Last few years due to better-than-average rainfalls, even the Sandhills in NE were verdant and green.