Music City takes the title of windiest city in 2016
Chicago doesn’t live up to nickname, fails to crack the Top 10
The windiest city in the U.S. in 2016 was Nashville, according to a yearly analysis of weather data from CoreLogic, a research and consulting firm.
The city came in first among the nation’s largest 279 metro areas, CoreLogic said. The ranking takes into account both the number of wind events as well as the total force caused by any wind gusts of 60 mph or more.
Nashville had 21 wind-related events in 2016 and a maximum wind speed of 72 mph. It was followed by Reno; Jackson, Miss.; Cincinnati; and Columbia, S.C. as the USA’s windiest cities last year, according to CoreLogic.
All of the USA’s highest wind speeds in 2016 were recorded during Hurricane Matthew’s rampage up the East Coast, with the highest being 101 mph, which was recorded at Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 6.
The highest single wind speed in a major metro area in 2016 was 92 mph in Tallahassee on Sept. 1.
“Wind can cause significant damage whether associated with an actual hurricane or not,” said Curtis McDonald, product manager at CoreLogic, in a statement. “Wind speeds of 92 mph, even without a hurricane — as seen in Tallahassee — can be a significant threat to life and property.”
These data are different than that generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which says that the windiest city overall is Dodge City, Kan., based on average wind speed, not which cities have the highest wind speeds.
Despite its famous nickname, Chicago, for the second straight year, didn’t even crack CoreLogic’s top 10 list of the windiest U.S. cities. Chicago’s nickname may not be weather-related and was instead bestowed because of the “hot air” from its politicians in the 1800s.
The Chicago Tribune’s “On Language” columnist Nathan Bierma wrote the definitive article in 2004 that explains the phrase’s origins. In it, though, he says the Windy City origin story (from a New York Sun editorial of the hot air from its politicians) may also be a myth, since the quote is nowhere to be found, and no one can prove it was written.