By Steve Lyttle
Workers at Grandfather Mountain described "an unreal" scene early Wednesday when record wind gusts of at least 200 mph battered the North Carolina tourist attraction in the northwest mountains.
"Our workers who were inside the Visitor Center said it was like a tornado -- a whirlwind -- inside the building after the windows broke," said Crae Morton, president of Grandfather Mountain and grandson of Hugh Morton, who developed the tourist site.
Morton said staff members don't know exactly how strong the northwest winds really blew late Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
The National Weather Service-approved anenometer measures only up to 200 mph. Morton said gusts reached that level several times. He said the staff assumes winds exceeded that mark.
It broke the Grandfather Mountain wind record of 195.5 mph, set April 18, 1997. Those winds are believed to be the strongest ever measured in the Carolinas.
The winds were created by a strong storm system over the Northeast. That system pumped chilly air into the Carolinas and the rest of the eastern United States, allowing temperatures to fall into the lower and middle 20's this morning. The low at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport today was 23 degrees, second-coldest this month behind a 22-degree reading Jan. 7.
The coldest readings reported in the Piedmont this morning were 21 degrees at Concord, Albemarle and Lexington.
Morton said the most amazing effect of the winds late Tuesday and early Wednesday was the lifting of a 300-pound boulder in the parking lot of the Visitor Center, at the 5,280-foot level of the mountain -- about 700 feet below the summit. Gusts forced the boulder, which was cemented to the parking lot, to roll over.
"One of our staff members has a picture of that," Morton said.
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