These are the windiest places on the planet

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Fastest Katabatic Wind: Antarctica

How strong are the gusts at the bottom of the world? It’s hard to say because instruments so often ice up and stop working, and those immune to freezing sometimes simply blow away in the harsh polar weather. Blowing snow can trick ultrasonic wind meters as well.

In any case, Antarctica holds the Guinness World Record for fastest katabatic wind (wind that travels down a slope), which was 168 mph, recorded in 1912 at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay. The region's annual average daily maximum wind speed is 44 mph, qualifying as gale force (greater than 39 mph).4

The weather patterns are affected by cold temperatures and by the topography of Antarctica itself, which slopes down toward the coastlines. This geography creates strong downslope winds that can cause blizzardlike conditions for weeks on end.

 

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Fastest Recorded Wind Speed: Barrow Island, Australia

Barrow Island currently holds the Guinness World Record for highest recorded wind speed not associated with a tornado. During 1996's Tropical Cyclone Olivia, 253 mph winds were clocked by an unmanned weather station on this portion of Western Australia's northwest coast.

Cyclones are hurricanelike storms that form in the Pacific. Barrow's record was determined by a three-second average and overthrew a previous record held by the New Hampshire's Mount Washington. The island is a major center for oil and natural gas operations, accommodating the most productive oil-extraction site in Australia, and also home to a conservation reserve where spectacled hare wallabies, sea turtles, perentie (Australia’s largest lizard), and other rare and protected species live.

 

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Fastest Recorded Wind Speed: Barrow Island, Australia

Barrow Island currently holds the Guinness World Record for highest recorded wind speed not associated with a tornado. During 1996's Tropical Cyclone Olivia, 253 mph winds were clocked by an unmanned weather station on this portion of Western Australia's northwest coast.

Cyclones are hurricanelike storms that form in the Pacific. Barrow's record was determined by a three-second average and overthrew a previous record held by the New Hampshire's Mount Washington. The island is a major center for oil and natural gas operations, accommodating the most productive oil-extraction site in Australia, and also home to a conservation reserve where spectacled hare wallabies, sea turtles, perentie (Australia’s largest lizard), and other rare and protected species live.

 

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Windiest U.S. Peak: Mount Washington, New Hampshire

Mount Washington, a 6,000-foot New Hampshire peak, held the world record for strongest recorded wind gust (231 mph, recorded in 1934) for most of the 20th century.5 While it's no longer a record holder, Mount Washington—with an average annual wind speed of 35 mph and average fastest monthly peak gusts of 231 mph—remains the windiest place in the U.S. and one of the windiest places in the world.6

The White Mountains, of which Washington is a member, sit at the intersection of several common storm tracks. The peaks are a barrier for easterly winds and often see a clash between low pressure from the Atlantic and inland high pressure. These factors combine to create hurricane-force winds (greater than 75 mph) on Mount Washington's summit more than 100 days each year.

 

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Windiest U.S. City: Dodge City, Kansas

Some of America’s windiest places are in the Midwest. Chicago, of course, is known as the Windy City, but that nickname is a widely misconstrued misnomer thought to have originated from its history of long-winded politicians rather than the actual weather.7 The data shows that many other U.S. towns and cities have faster average drafts and record gusts. Dodge City, Kansas, is thought to be the windiest of all.

This frontier cattle town's average wind speed is 15 mph.8 There are locations in the U.S. with higher averages, but this is the windiest place with a significant population (roughly 27,000 people). While Kansas is indeed located within Tornado Alley, the winds sweeping down off the Rocky Mountains and into the Great Plains play a larger role than the occasional twister does in setting that high average. A similar downslope wind pattern affects another one of the U.S.'s windiest towns, Amarillo, Texas.

 

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Windiest City in Eurasia: Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is known as the City of Winds. Though still apt today, the nickname was first used in ancient times, when the settlement was referred to as the "city of pounding wind" in Persian. From about June to April, wind speeds average more than 11 mph.9

There are two sources of Baku’s breezes: cold winds blowing in from the Caspian Sea, sometimes reaching gale force, and warmer winds moving overland into the city. Despite the prevalence of the colder winds and the wind chills that can come with them during winter, Baku benefits from its breezy weather patterns. The city has a pollution problem, but the consistent blowing clears the air.10

There's nothing to impede these gusts because Baku is 92 feet below sea level.

 

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Windiest City in Canada: Saint John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

Saint John's is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. One thing for which it's famous is its weather-related superlatives. Its average annual wind speed, topping 13 mph, and gusts over 30 mph recorded on almost 50 days out of the year have earned it the title of "windiest city in Canada."11 The Newfoundland hub is also one of the foggiest, cloudiest, rainiest, and snowiest of any major Canadian city.

Wind chills can be an issue in the wintertime, but Saint John's actually claims to have the third-most temperate climate in the country, after Vancouver and Victoria.

 

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Windiest European Country: Scotland

Scotland’s ranking as the windiest country in Europe hails from a rather unusual source. A Scottish ice cream company, Mackie’s, ran an ad campaign that said it used wind power to operate its factory, and that plant was located in the "windiest place in Europe." The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority disputed that claim and asked Mackie’s to prove it, or else pull the ads. The ice cream maker then gathered the data from British scientists and showed the veracity of its claims.

Scotland has average wind speeds of between 10 and 18 mph, with the strongest gusts occurring in Western Scotland.13 Some coastal areas have 25 days worth of gale-force winds per year. The strongest winds occur during the wintertime and are caused by depressions in the Atlantic.

 

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Windiest Place in South America: Patagonia Region, Chile and Argentina

Like New Zealand, South America's Patagonia region is affected by the Roaring Forties. The cities of Punta Arenas, Chile, and Rio Gallegos, Argentina, are in the crosshairs of these muscular gusts. Punta Arenas, the largest city in the world below the 46th parallel, actually maintains a moderate temperature thanks to its proximity to the ocean. However, it's so windy here that authorities have strung ropes in between some buildings so that people have something to hold onto during extreme gusts. 80 mph winds are not uncommon, especially during summer.14

In Rio Gallegos, the average annual wind speed is about 15.7 mph, but that figure is much higher during the summer.15 The winds help to keep the average summertime highs below 70 degrees.

 

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Fastest Tornado Winds: Tornado Alley, Oklahoma

Many of the highest wind speeds ever recorded during tornado activity were in Oklahoma. This includes a 1999 tornado that occurred in Bridge Creek, a suburb of Oklahoma City, which reached a speed of about 300 mph in the sky. Measured by Doppler radar, this record overthrew the previous airborne wind speed record belonging to fellow Oklahoma town Red Rock, which recorded 286 mph winds during a tornado in 1991.

Yet another twister near Oklahoma City in the small town of El Reno in 2013 was nearly three miles wide and had winds approaching 300 mph.16 The World Meteorological Organization does not accept Doppler speed readings as official, which is why Barrow Island still holds the record for fastest recorded wind speed. It’s difficult for instruments to survive tornados, let alone take accurate readings.

 

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The 10 Windiest Cities in the US​

The windiest city in the U.S. is not Chicago, despite its famous nickname. Instead, average wind speeds indicate that other cities in the Midwest and on the coast surpass even the self-assigned Windy City in blustery-ness. Whereas a "normal" wind speed would be seven or eight mph, many cities endure wind speeds greater than 10 mph for much of the year.
Keep in mind that wind speeds vary with the climate, and an increase in hurricanes, tornadoes, and storms rolling off the mountains can cause abnormal conditions.
From Corpus Christi, Texas, to Boston, Massachusetts, here are 10 of the windiest cities in the U.S.
1
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Dodge City, Kansas​

Gerald B. Keane / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

• Average wind speed: 15 mph
• Average windiest month: April
• Record wind gust: 48 to 79 mph (record unknown)

Kansas is known for being the flattest state, but it's actually seventh in line for that title, based on its percentage of flatness. Nonetheless, the featureless topography of the Great Plains plays a role in Kansas' windiness, especially in the southwest, which bears the brunt of gusts traveling down the Rocky Mountains. Dodge City sits in the heart of this region and in the bowels of Tornado Alley. It's thought to be the windiest city in the U.S., with an average wind speed of 15 mph.
That's mild compared to Dodge City's monthly maximums, though. Even the calmest month, November, sees 44 mph winds, and the blowiest? That would be March, with its 63 mph sustained winds. The most recent National Centers for Environmental Information Climatic Wind Data Publication (featuring data compiled from 1930 to 1996) said Dodge City experiences gusts of up to 79 mph during those windy periods.

 

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2
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Amarillo, Texas​

The Texas Panhandle is known for its strong winds. john finney photography / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 13.6 mph
• Average windiest months: March and April
• Record wind gust: 84 mph on May 15, 1949

Amarillo experiences a similar phenomenon to Dodge City. It's located in the blustery Texas Panhandle, east of the southern Rocky Mountains, and westerly winds from peaks in New Mexico cause low pressure in the plains. "This very persistent low pressure is what leads to the strong average wind speeds from the southwest and west," the National Weather Service says.
Although Amarillo has one of the highest average wind speeds of any U.S. city—13.6 mph—its record wind gust of 84 mph is not as high as other cities in Texas and throughout the Midwest.

 

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3
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Lubbock, Texas​

Wind farms in Lubbock, Texas, take advantage of the area's high winds.
RoschetzkyIstockPhoto / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 12.4 mph
• Average windiest month: April
• Record wind gust: 90 mph on May 9, 1952

Just south of what is considered to be the Texas Panhandle is Lubbock, with average wind speeds of 12.4 mph. It's so consistently windy in Lubbock that it's home to the American Wind Power Center (formerly known as the American Windmill Museum) and has its own wind farm that provides energy for about 27,000 households per year. Its windiness can be attributed to the city's position on the Llano Estacado, a region on the Western High Plains.

 

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4
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Boston, Massachusetts​

Cavan Images / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 12.3 mph
• Average windiest months: February and March
• Record wind gust: 90 mph on October 17, 2019

Boston's winds are so strong that in 2016, they overturned a century-old, eight-foot-tall statue of Benjamin Franklin, erected in 1856. Situated onshore of the Atlantic Ocean, the city is prone to winter nor'easters, extratropical cyclones that bring heavy gusts in from the northeast. It also gets hit by the occasional hurricane or tropical cyclone between June 1 and November 30 every year.

Although Boston's average wind speed is about 12.3 mph, gusts of 90 mph were reported on the Cape during a bomb cyclone in October 2019. Boston's winds vary greatly by season, but February and March are its windiest months and much of the wind comes from the east or southeast.

 

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5
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma​

Marcus Elwell / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 12.2 mph
• Average windiest month: March
• Record wind gust: 92 mph on April 16, 1990

Oklahoma City has a four-month period of intensified winds from February through May, and its peak tornado season runs from April to June. Unlike the case with northern cities like Boston, Chicago, and Buffalo, Oklahoma City's inherent windiness usually helps temper hot temperatures rather than create polar conditions. Its winds usually come from the south or south-southeast (so, Texas).

 

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6
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Rochester, Minnesota​

Andy445 / Getty Images

Average wind speed: 12.1 mph
Average windiest month: April
Record wind gust: 74 mph on July 20, 2019
Wind is associated with topographical flatness—fewer hills mean fewer obstructions to prevent gusts from ripping through the landscape—and Minnesota is the fifth flattest state (by percentage of flatness) in the U.S. It's flatter even than Kansas. Rochester lies in the southeast corner of the leveled state and has one of the highest average wind speeds of any other Minnesota city, about 12.1 mph.

April is the windiest month of the year, mostly because of clashing warm and cold temperatures from the south and north.

 

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7
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Corpus Christi, Texas​

Florin Seitan / EyeEm / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 12 mph
• Average windiest month: April
• Record wind gust: 161 mph on August 3, 1970

Corpus Christi is another scorching city whose residents may see the perpetual breeze as a blessing rather than a curse. 80-plus-degree temperatures blast this coastal oasis most days from April through October, but the extra-long summer would seem even hotter were it not for the wind.

The strongest gusts to ever hit Corpus Christi were during Hurricane Celia, which brought 161 mph winds on August 3, 1970.

 

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8 of 10

Buffalo, New York​

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 11.8 mph
• Average windiest month: January
• Record wind gust: 82 mph on February 16, 1967

Buffalo is blustery because it sits on the banks of Lake Eerie, catching what scientists call "lake breeze." This phenomenon occurs when the land is warmer than the water. "The warm air over land rises, and gets replaced by the relatively cool air which resides immediately above the lake surface," the National Weather Service says. In the winter, this leads to lake-effect snow (the product of below-freezing air passing over warm water).

It makes sense, then, that January would be Buffalo's windiest month. The city's average wind speed is about 11.8 mph; however, it has seen gusts in the 70- and 80-mph range before.

 

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9
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Wichita, Kansas​

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 11.5 mph
• Average windiest month: April
• Record wind gust: 101 mph on July 11, 1993

The wind in Wichita—like in Dodge City—is caused by air coming over the Colorado Rocky Mountains and sinking, meanwhile warming and strengthening the low-pressure zone of the plains to the east. Because it's about 150 miles east of Dodge City, it has a lower average wind speed than its small-town counterpart (11.5 mph versus 15 mph). Its fastest wind gust was clocked at 101 mph, recorded at the Eisenhower Airport during a 1993 derecho.

What Is a Derecho?​

A derecho is a simple thunderstorm that swells and expands into a widespread band of storms powered by jet stream energy. These storms are fast-moving, long-lived, and cause hurricane- and tornado-force winds.

 

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10
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Fargo, North Dakota​

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

• Average wind speed: 11.2 mph
• Average windiest month: April
• Record wind gust: 115 mph on June 9, 1959

Although annual wind speed averages have gotten up to 15 mph in Fargo, the city's average from 1948 to 2014 was about 11.2 mph, North Dakota State University reported. Fargo sits in the Red River Valley, an intensely blustery zone due to being only a few hundred feet wide.

Its windiness, mixed with its northern position, creates optimal conditions for blizzards and other winter storms, too. Summer is generally the least windy of Fargo's seasons, but in June 1959, 115 mph wind gusts were recorded at the Fargo Airport during a tornado.