What happens when it's very windy at parks?

It's 2pm in Sydney & there is a very strong westerly wind. It's blowing at about 40mph with 60mph gusts. Can coasters operate in this wind?

On a side note, didn't MF once rollback as the wind stopped it from cresting the 180ft 3rd hill?

I keep laughing as Windjammer's name is so ironic :).

*** This post was edited by Taipan on 8/18/2001. ***

We're all gunna blow away!!! And the coasters ahhhhhhhh. lol I don't think coasters can operate in those kinds of winds except for windjammer. It can operate.LOL that was a joke.

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www.hometown.aol.com/bowlin781 *** This post was edited by GAm fan on 8/18/2001. ***

Most coasters will shut down in that type of wind. The exact speed limits vary, so call the park.

What do parks do if they are next to a very large body of water like the ocean? If the coaster is a woodie, do they have cables to keep it from blowing down in a hurricane?

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Umm the rides is built for whatever the state codes are, like for earthquake, builders need to build the ride for the building codes for that certain area or state, same for Hurricans areas, builder need to build a coaster to with stand a certain wind speed or to meet that area building codes. Most ride close on high wind speeds, and/or heavy rain

Someone told me that Windjammer couldn't operate with a light breeze

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Windjammer couldn't operate under winds higher than 6 miles per hour (this is the average speed i've heard).

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What happens when it's windy?


Magnum gets stuck in the pretzel.

I think it was actually 4 mph

KBF has a lot of problems when it's windy. The don't have Supreme Scream, Ghostrider, or Montezooma's Revenge running (never mind Windjammer) when it is windy. You pretty much have to go to Camp Snoopy or eat while the Santa Ana winds are raging. I spent an entire day in February waiting until 2 pm to ride anything besides the boomerang. Yet, I went to Nagashima Spaland last month, and they had every ride open with the exception of SD2K and it was raining like crazy (2 inches per hour). You just never know.

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High winds can cause several problems. They can combine with the coaster's motion to cause overloads. (The least likely of the problems.) They can cause disconcerting swaying. And most commonly, they greatly slow the coaster. Even a cross wind will do this.

In the first weeks of operating Millenium Force, they sent an unballasted train out on a morning when the wind was blowing off Lake Erie at 30 mph. Normally, they can get away with this as shown on "The World's Largest Amusement Park." On this day with the high winds, MF slowed so much that it valleyed out, shutting down operations for the day.

Things blow over.

I read that on really windy days, a fully loaded Magnum train barely makes it over the third hill and they turn the trims before the pretzel off too.

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KBF is to caustious when running there rides, during high wind which is rarely and when there is a light sprinkle they shut down, Monta, Ghostrider, PP and that it, they are to cautous

If the winds are REALLY strong, they can cause the train to stall in parts of the track (Magnum-'89-pretzel comes to mind; although, that was a combination of poor conditions).

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How would they get Magnum out of its pretzel if it got stuck there?
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Yea, but Magnum was hitting 55 mph winds! WindJammer could stall in 3-5 mph winds! Mean Streak also rolls back alot, so much they reprofiled part of it.

A lot depends upon how the ride is oriented to the prevailing winds. If the ride is parallel to the wind pattern it can slow, if not stop a coaster if it's strong enough. If it's perpendicular to it can cause the trains to nose back and forth. This is referred to as "hunting". This is one of the things that is considered when placing a coaster (or any ride that is sensitive to changes in wind speed).
The Golden Zephyr at DCA is very wind sensitive . The rocket tubs tend to "hunt" when the wind comes in faster than a couple of miles an hour. Thus the re-engineering of the ride that is about to begin. *** This post was edited by Dutchman on 8/19/2001. ***

In a March 2001 visit to Sea World, I found Kraken closed because of high winds (I am pretty sure that the Observation Tower was also closed).

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