The 130 mph wind gust recorded on Hidden Peak at Snowbird on December 21st 2022 would be the new state record if it stands breaking the 124 mph wind gust at the same location on November 8th 1986. I'm a meteorologist and have been looking at Baldy peak and Hidden peak winds for 25+ years, have been skiing at Snowbird almost exclusively since 1986. For the first 20+ years of looking at winds on these two nearby peaks the winds on average have been stronger (not always) on Baldy peak. In June of 2015 Hidden peak observation went off-line and when it came back on-line in January of 2020 I noticed that that Hidden peak winds were now stronger (not always) on average compared to Baldy peak. My best guess for the change is Snowbird installed a new anemometer (possibly a new sonic version) and it is not calibrated correctly or the more likely possibility is it is not sited correctly. Sonic anemometers are very sensitive and accurate but can easily be influenced by surrounding buildings, equipment, and other obstructions.
Attached is a image that compares Baldy (AMB) and Hidden Peak (HDP) at two different times in similar conditions, data was pulled from MesoWest. The first data set is from December of 2000 when Baldy peak hit it highest recorded gust and the second is from December of 2022 with the event that recorded the 130 mph winds gust at 9:45pm on the 21st. Note that the below data only compared hourly data so the 130 mph gust is missing. You can easily see that for particular day in 2000 the winds on average (not always) were stronger on Baldy peak compared to Hidden Peak and how it has reversed in 2022. This is just one day of data but you can pick any day between January 1997 and May of 2015 on MesoWest to compare and on average you will see that Baldy has always (on average) had stronger winds all the way until the Hidden peak site went off-line in June of 2015.
