Tumbleweed is sprawling across sidewalks. It is blowing across freeways. It is stacked up — many feet high — against homes in Utah and Nevada.
The masses upon masses of prickly tumbleweed are more fallout from severe weather sweeping the Western United States, in which wind gusts over 60 mph destroyed infrastructure, downed trees and power lines, and caused widespread outages and road closures.
Some called it the tumbleweed takeover. Others referred to it as tumblemageddon.
Armed with brooms, shovels and rakes, residents in the city of South Jordan in Salt Lake County, Utah, reportedly ventured out into the streets this weekend — some with protective gloves and several layers of clothing amid low temperatures — as they tried to brush the streets free of the spiky invaders.
“We’ve had a few tumbleweeds, but nothing like this,” John Young told local station KSL-TV. “It’s absolutely crazy.”
Young said he woke up Saturday to find his entire front porch covered in the spiky weeds.
“There’s nothing to do but laugh,” he said.
The city of South Jordan in a Facebook update detailed several locations where people could dispose of tumbleweeds that had landed on their property.
“Our Streets crews are running the dumpsters to the landfill as soon as they get full and bringing them back,” the post said. City officials also rolled in with special equipment to clear the weeds.
“This is not our first tumblemageddon,” Rachel Van Cleave, the city’s communications manager, told the station.
Tumbleweeds also swept into the city of Eagle Mountain, Utah, acting like roadblocks on the streets, as one social media user said.
City officials there urged residents not to push the tumbleweeds into the street, adding that this could create traffic safety issues.
“Eagle Mountain residents may have noticed the presence of tumbleweeds roaming their neighborhoods,” read a post shared to the city’s official Facebook page over the weekend. “This is a friendly reminder that property owners are responsible for clearing unwanted tumbleweeds from their property.”
Residents were asked to retrieve a free pass to a landfill, though officials said that if people were “experiencing the presence of thousands of tumbleweeds,” they should submit an issue through the city’s residents portal on its mobile app.
The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City said in a tweet that Saturday was a “remarkable day for wind,” and police there said that they had been receiving storm-related calls and that people should not approach downed utility lines. Salt Lake City International Airport posted a gust of 56 mph, while Sundance and Park City clocked gusts of 80 and 78 mph, respectively.
The windy weather in the West was linked to the same storm system that unloaded 5 to 9 feet of snow in California’s Sierra Nevada. According to the Weather Service, winds gusted over 60 mph in Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Utah over the weekend. Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas registered a gust of 68 mph, its highest wind gust in March since 1985. Gusts topped 100 mph in Sierras.
Around Las Vegas, the high winds toppled trees, cut power and grounded flights. One video posted to social media showed pool furniture flying through the air and nearly hitting people on the deck. Other videos showed displaced trampolines, bent signs, and debris littering streets.
As of Monday, more than 10,000 customers in California were without power. At the height of the windstorm, tens of thousands were in the dark in Nevada and Utah, where power has mostly since been restored.
According to the Natural History Museum in Britain, the plant, also known as “Russian thistle” or “wind witch,” arrived in North America about 150 years ago. Tumbleweeds, native to dry and semi-dry regions throughout Europe and central Asia, are thought to have arrived in North America in the 1870s when its seeds got tucked inside a container of flaxseed imported from what was then the Russian Empire, according to the museum.
The ball-shaped plant has “needle-like leaves” and can grow to over three feet tall before it breaks away from its root, beginning to roll wherever the wind takes it, the museum said. Though the plant is dead, it disperses living seeds as it tumbles, allowing it to “spread prolifically.”
The museum notes that tumbleweed is also “particularly flammable” and risks the spread of wildfires. It said tumbleweeds can also cause traffic issues and, due to its potent allergen, breathing issues for people with allergies.
WASHINGTON POST