Wreckhouse Wind Gauge

The Science

Why is Wreckhouse so windy?

Wreckhouse is a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway between Tompkins and Cape Ray, in the southwest corner of Newfoundland. The highway runs along a narrow strip of land between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the steep western face of the Long Range Mountains, which rise several hundred metres right beside the road.

The trouble starts when a storm approaches from the southwest and the wind blows from the southeast. That air is pushed up and over the Long Range Mountains. When there’s a stable layer of air sitting above the mountaintops, it acts like a lid: the wind gets squeezed between the lid and the ridge, then comes racing down the other side, a bit like water pouring over a dam. Meteorologists call it a downslope windstorm.

By the time that air reaches the bottom of the slope, right where the highway is, it can be blowing much harder than it is anywhere else nearby. It’s not unusual for Wreckhouse to see gusts well over 100 km/h while Port aux Basques, just 20 minutes down the road, has a fraction of that. The gusts also come in bursts, so a vehicle can go from calm to being hit side-on in a matter of seconds.

Wreckhouse winds are so well known that Environment Canada issues its own Wreckhouse wind warning for the area, separate from regular wind warnings.

A little history

Long before the Trans-Canada, the Newfoundland Railway ran through Wreckhouse, and the wind blew rail cars right off the tracks more than once. For decades, the railway relied on Lauchie MacDougall, a local trapper and farmer who lived at Wreckhouse. Known as the “human wind gauge,” he would judge the wind and call the railway when it was too dangerous for trains to pass. After he died, his wife Emily carried on the job. This page is named in his honour.