One injured as family reunion disrupted by surprise wind event in Uintas
Jul 19, 2022, 7:31 AM | Updated: 11:28 am
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Family members in attendance at a reunion this weekend at Lost Lake in the Uintas said they were caught by surprise by a powerful wind event that left one of their relatives with minor injuries.
Glen and Becky Clement said at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, what they described as a “twister” took shape near the lake’s shore.
“All of a sudden I saw this dust spiral turn into a big dust devil and then I saw chairs shooting up into the air, life jackets,” Glen said in an interview with KSL TV Monday. “Then I noticed that one of the life jackets wasn’t a life jacket — it was my sister.”
Clement said his sister, Carol Glenn, was propelled more than 30 feet.
A family reunion in the Uintas turned into this for one relative. The WILD weather event that totally caught family members by surprise…@KSL5TV at 10p #KSLTV #Utah pic.twitter.com/ZDDHFnlFvr
— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) July 19, 2022
“The wind had just picked her up 3 or 4 feet in the air — she was upside down — and then she splashed down into the lake, right on the edge of the lake,” Clement said.
Glenn herself described the event in an account texted to her relatives.
“As soon as I was standing just beside the hammock I looked over my shoulder and saw what looked like a dust storm type funnel, and I remember it appeared to be within 10 feet away from me,” she stated. “I thought I should run and just as I turned my head around and before I could take any steps away from it I felt a wall of air hit me, lifting me off the ground and whirling around with my eyes closed and having no idea where it was taking me until I landed in the soft wet muddy shallow water.”
Clement said his sister was lucky to avoid serious injury. She received a laceration to her face that required stitches.
Meteorologists told KSL TV that nothing concrete showed up on their instrumentation at the time other than storms generally in the area, though they noted any storm could develop into gusty winds and microbursts.
“It was a twister!” Becky Clement exclaimed.
Multiple family members described what looked like a circulation near the ground.
“It was about 15 feet in diameter because you could see the stuff swirling around in the circle and you could see the brown dust in the very center of it,” Glen Clement said.
Ten-year-old niece Ashley Clement drew what she believed the wind event looked like, which once again featured a circulation-like illustration.
Ashley Clement’s drawing of the event.
Family members said the wind also knocked over at least three trees in the area where they were staying.
“Everything was vacated out and then it was calm again!” Glen Clement said.
The family said they’d like to warn others and tell them to be prepared, but they saw no way to do so.
“You can’t even prepare for something like this!” Becky Clement said.
