Now not even the wind has a hiding place
At first glance, it’s hard to believe Oklahoma City didn’t make CoreLogic’s annual Windy City Index for 2016, neither by top wind speed nor number of wind events.
That’s partly because tornadoes don’t count as wind events. So even the couple of little tornadoes that did hit last year wouldn’t have changed the rankings.
Not even the wind that always comes sweepin’ down the plain could compete.
First, CoreLogic’s definition:
“A wind event is defined as an estimated 3 (second) gust at the city center plus a 10-mile radius surrounding it. The maximum wind speed gust is derived from the highest estimated gust (mph) recorded over a 24-hour period. For example, if within a 24-hour period, 3 wind gusts occur, the one that reflects the highest estimated speed would be reflected as the recorded wind event. It is only possible to have one recorded wind event per day.”
Seems like we could meet that definition around here by Opening Day any year, baseball season and spring storm season starting about the same time in early April.
Didn’t happen last year.
Almost all the top wind speeds — 86 to 101 mph — came Oct. 6-7 in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina courtesy of Hurricane Matthew.
The hurricane aside, for wind speed, the top city with more than 100,000 population was Tallahassee, Florida, at 92 mph on Sept. 1. Next, at 90 mph, were Reno, Nevada, on Dec. 15; Savannah, Georgia, on Oct. 8; and Omaha, Nebraska, on Aug. 23.
Then Jacksonville, Florida, at 89 mph on Oct. 7.
Ranked by number of wind events, the top cities with more than 100,000 population were Nashville, Tennessee, with 21; Columbia, South Carolina, with 18; Cambridge, Massachusetts, with 17; followed by Cincinnati, Ohio, Boston and Charlotte, North Carolina, each with 16.
All of which is good for bar bets, as well as sober contemplation.
What’s really interesting is why CoreLogic tracks such data. CoreLogic, a financial and property data firm based in Irvine, California — with its Weather Verification Services arm in Norman — collects and analysis this data to provide to the insurance industry.
One-fourth of all claims are for wind damage, CoreLogic says. Makes perfect sense.
What’s really, really interesting are the products that CoreLogic creates and sells.
The latest, “for discerning contractors, engineers, insurance claims and catastrophe response teams,” are proprietary Wind Speed Maps, which “show significant wind events anywhere in the continental United States. ... We plot severe wind paths for impacted geographic areas and color code these areas in 5mph increments from 40 to 160 miles per hour.
“Wind Speed Maps are available from January 1, 2006 to the current date (updated in real time on an hourly basis) — most comprehensive locationlevel severe wind verification archive available.”
The maps are sold singly or by subscription, and are the next step from CoreLogic’s address-specific Wind Verification Services:
“Quickly and easily verify the wind speed both at the location and in the surrounding area. Based on our proprietary wind verification science, each Wind Verification Report contains the dates and speed of wind for every significant event since 2006 at the location of interest and within 1, 3, and 10 miles.”
Amazing stuff — not news to people in insurance and related fields, but maybe to you.
It was news to me, but not surprising at all, since increasingly there is nowhere to hide, which is not necessarily a good thing.
But there’s also less ability to fib or stretch it when it comes to property damage, and that’s not bad, technically speaking.
The wind still blows where it will, but danged if CoreLogic doesn’t know whence it comes and whither it goes — at least in cities with 100,000 population and larger.
Ranked by number of wind events, the top cities with more than 100,000 population were Nashville, Tennessee, with 21; Columbia, South Carolina,
with 18; Cambridge, Massachusetts, with 17; followed
by Cincinnati, Ohio, Boston and Charlotte, North Carolina, each
with 16.