Cedar Point Wind

In light of windy days a couple weeks ago that required CP to close many rides, I'm curious... how windy does it have to be to shut down the coasters?

I'm looking at going Friday... forecast calls for winds 10 to 15 out of the southwest with gusts up to 25. Obviously that can change, but any idea if that will close a lot of rides?

Wind is an unpredictable force of nature unlike any other. Who knows other than the weather man.

Tyler... I realize even at 48 hours out, an Ohio forecast can certainly change. I'm just trying to figure out if that wind forecast holds up, if they will be closing a lot of coasters.

Tyler Boes said:

Wind is an unpredictable force of nature unlike any other.

So is Tyler Boes.

2013: Year of the Wind

Tyler it was nice of you to ignore the question.

10-15 won't close much if anything, but 25-30 will. I don't think it would hurt to email the park for an idea of weather conditions that close rides.

Emailing the park about next years new rides doesn't work, though. I learned the hard way.

You should be more concerned about the possibility for rain - even drizzle can close many major coasters. See my recent trip report from today and others from the past few years.

Emailing the park about what kind of weather conditions cause ride closures is not asking some secret information though. It would be in their interest to inform guests about why all the rides are closed.

Tried the email route yesterday... no luck. I was just able to call though... they couldn't give specifics, but said it is very windy there today (quick check on weather.com showed consistent 22mph winds). TTD, Power Tower, Wind Seeker, and Sky Ride are down. Not too shabby.

Rain is certainly a concern. Right now 40% chance of scattered storms, so not a total wash out. I can deal with a storm or two that moves in and out quickly. But this is Ohio, and tomorrow the forecast could call for nothing but sun or an all day downpour.

I was there yesterday on a fairly windy day, with a very brief thunderstorm (nearby lightning) in the middle of the day. The wind put down the predictable rides like Skyride and Windseeker, but because it was coming off the bay, they also ended up closing Raptor, GateKeeper and Dragster. The direction matters as well. However, nearly everything was opened for the last two hours of operation, so it's not necessarily a wash of a day just because it is windy or it potentially rains.

I was there as well. You can tell if lightning is closing rides because all the big stuff shuts down. Once that blew over and the wind calmed they had everything going again. The constant temperature changes are bringing lots of high winds with them. This May has been very tempermental.

Generally speaking, right around 25-30 MPH is where you need to be concerned about major rides starting to close for wind. As Jeff said, direction is important too. Some rides like Raptor and Magnum can run in higher winds unless the wind is coming from a particular direction.

I was curious about the wind speed that closes rides too, after hearing about high winds fanning a brushfire near SFMM today. Of course it was probably the brushfire and not the winds that shut the rides down....

Once years ago on an opening week Monday we went to Cedar Point and encountered one of the windiest days I've ever experienced there. Rides that were open were Corkscrew, Blue Streak, Disaster Transport (of course) the 'covered' flats (Himalaya, Matterhorn, etc) and surprisingly, Power Tower. I was shocked until I thought about it some and decided that it must be possible due to the attached "elevator" type of design. Anyway, we rode it for a special scary windy thrill (plus there wasn't much else to do) and it ran great!

I believe Power Tower shuts down when the wind hits 40 MPH. I imagine it would be probably the last tall ride to close in windy conditions.