There has been another “Tumblegeddon” incident, and this one is truly incredible.
Back in early 2020, I wrote about how a massive number of tumbleweeds caused major problems in Eastern Washington, piling up in huge mounds and literally burying cars on a highway near the Tri-Cities area.
The latest version of the nightmarish scenario took place in a much larger piece of real estate, as several communities in Nevada and Utah dealt with the issue thanks to a giant storm that passed over the Western United States last week. The same storm dumped as much as 9 feet of snow (!) in spots in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and caused high winds in six states, including a gust of close to 70 miles per hour at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (the highest recorded in March since 1985).
As those winds blew through Nevada and Utah, they unleashed a hoard of tumbleweeds that rumbled and bumbled in colossal numbers across roadways and other public venues, and formed immense tumble-drifts that rose high enough to obscure entire homes and other large objects. The conditions were perfect; the bushes were dead and ready to roll, so to speak, and the strong winds were right on time.
Can you imagine seeing tumbleweeds piled all the way to the roof line on one side of your house? What do you do with them, especially if the wind is still blowing and you can’t conduct a burn (or at least shouldn’t)?
I saw a report that said residents of a small town in Salt Lake County, Utah, responded to the situation by taking attacking the invasion “armed with brooms, shovels and rakes…as they tried to brush the streets free of the spiky invaders.”
What, you’re going to use a broom to sweep away a 17-foot high tumble-drift? And what good is a shovel when you’re dealing with prickly, 3-foot in diameter dead bushes?
Well, I guess it’s the spirit of community service and togetherness that counts, even if it’s kind of in vain.
As the scenario played out, the city of Eagle Mountain, Utah, released a statement on social media that said, “residents may have noticed the presence of tumbleweeds roaming their neighborhoods.”
Roaming? It’s like they’re being elevated to living entity status. That sounds like a decent storyline for a horror movie.
The statement also included a “friendly reminder” that “property owners are responsible for clearing unwanted tumbleweeds from their property.”
Dang it, I was hoping the guys in the tumbleweed department were going to arrive soon and take care of this mess.
For the record, the common tumbleweed (a.k.a “Russian thistle”) is apparently an annual plant native to parts of Europe and Asia that can break off at the base of the stem when it dies, dispersing its seeds as it tumbles around in the wind. It is believed to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds from Russia to South Dakota in the 1870s, and become naturalized in an expansive area not long after that.
That’s pretty crazy. Stowaways in flax seed shipments in the Swinged Cat State became one of the most iconic features of the Wild West. What are the odds?
Obviously, we don’t deal with tumbleweeds in the Ozarks. But we’ve had plenty of Floodageddons, a handful of Iceageddons and a real bad Hailageddon.
Can you imagine if we’re ever faced with Tickageddon? No thanks.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.