What's Up With That? Has Columbus seen more wind than usual in recent years?

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6 days ago

It seems that the Columbus area has become more windy in the past few years. Is there any data to support that?
As an intern reporter, I am no stranger to the weather.
Whether it's ranking the coldest Mays in Columbus history or compiling lightning safety tips, it's a sort of rite of passage for young journalists like me to be assigned climate-related coverage like this.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a task I take on with contempt. In fact, I was often told by a college journalism professor that the average news consumer only really cares about two things: crime and whether they need an umbrella. Local weather stories matter, he'd say, because they're universally relevant, immediate and useful — three solid pillars to any news story. Sure, it may be associated with grunt work sometimes, but that doesn't make it unimportant.
So, when I was asked to answer this week's "What's Up With That?" query, I knew fairly immediately what to do. After all, the National Weather Service's Wilmington, Ohio office and I are practically on a first-name basis.
Here's what a meteorologist had to say about wind in central Ohio.
Has Columbus been windier as of late?
According to the NWS's Steve Hrebenach, the organization doesn't keep long-term data on average wind speeds from year to year. As such, he couldn't provide any concrete information as to whether the area has been generally windier in recent years.
Disappointed, I asked him if there was any wind-related data the NWS did keep. He paused, and told me he would look into it. Assuring me he would call back once he had answers, we parted ways.
Sure enough, my phone rang not an hour later. Though he still couldn't speak to wind levels over longer periods of time, he was able to share data that showed how Columbus' windiness varied across each July over the past several decades. Thank you, Steve!
NWS data shows that this July has actually had slower winds than the same month in years past. As of July 24, this month's average wind speed has been 5.66 mph, which Hrebenach said is the seventh-lowest ever recorded in Columbus.
Below is a list of the five highest average wind speeds for the month of July in Columbus.
8.74 mph in 1972
8.57 mph in 1981
8.51 mph in 1948
8.49 mph in 1980
8.45 mph in 1966
Below is a list of the five lowest average wind speeds for the month of July in Columbus.
3.87 mph in 1995
5.04 mph in 1989
5.39 mph in 1994
5.53 mph in 1992
5.55 mph in 1987
So, what gives? Why does it feel like it's windier than usual in Columbus?
Hrebenach said there's no great explanation for why folks may feel like it's windier than in years past, adding it could be an instance of recency bias.
He said there's no significant trend associated with why one July is windier than another. The disparities between the windiest Julys of the pre-1980s and the less windy Julys of the late 80s and early 90s could be simply because older wind-measuring equipment was less technologically advanced — or just because weather patterns shift.
Whatever the explanation may be, Hrebenach said these differences aren't terribly large, and most people won't feel them from one July to another.
As for our dear reader who likely begs to differ, you may still be onto something — because if the NWS isn't tracking long-term wind trends, your memory might just be the best data we've got.
Want to have your own question answered? Send us an email.
Journalism is nothing without community, and on behalf of us all at The Dispatch, we wouldn't be able to do what we do if we didn't have readers who wondered about the ongoings of their neighborhood.
In that spirit, if you have a Columbus-related query you'd like us to answer, please ask! Email [e-mail], or send a message to [e-mail]. Try to remember to add "What's Up With That?" in the subject line so we can find your inquiries more quickly.
We appreciate those of you who have already submitted questions — and if you haven't yet, we'd love to hear from you. Until then, we'll keep chasing down answers.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at [e-mail], or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wind levels Columbus: NWS data on history of wind in July
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