The Coachella Valley was battered by strong winds on Saturday, April 25, causing a brief evacuation of the Stagecoach country music festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
Indio had seen wind gusts over 40 mph on Saturday night before attendees at the Empire Polo Club were told to evacuate around 8 p.m. The festival was reopened to attendees about an hour later.
Meanwhile, other parts of the Coachella Valley saw gusts reaching 50 mph on Saturday, according to Paul Steward, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s San Diego office.
Steward said the area still could see some strong gusts from gap-flow winds at the San Gorgonio Pass overnight Saturday, though he noted that most parts of the valley, such as Palm Springs and Palm Desert, were reporting lighter winds after 9 p.m.
“The trends should be that these winds should continue to come down,” Steward said.
The brief evacuation was issued as the entire valley was under a wind advisory through 11 a.m. Sunday. A separate alert from the South Coast Air Quality Management District also warned of windblown dust and high particle pollution (known as PM10).
The AQMD alert warned of “unhealthy” or worse air quality Saturday in the northern parts of the valley, as well as dust that’s “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in other parts of the valley, including Indio.
While the windy weather wreaked havoc on the festival, forcing its Ferris wheel to be closed earlier in the day, the temperatures remained fairly pleasant, with overnight lows Saturday forecasted in the upper 50s.
Weather forecast for Indio on Sunday
The valley’s air quality is expected to improve to good to moderate levels Sunday afternoon, when the forecast calls for weaker winds. However, anyone who’s attended Stagecoach can attest to the dust being particularly pronounced at the Empire Polo Club, after hundreds of thousands of visitors have walked around the grounds during the prior two weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: After Stagecoach evacuation due to high winds, gusts expected to calm
Reporting by Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
