Is it windier in Pittsburgh than it used to be? Hey Ray!

Recently, the wind has grabbed some headlines, and this has brought many questions my way.  

The most common being, "Is it windier than it used to be?" There is a lot to look at when you are trying to sort out this kind of observation.  

• Are the average wind speeds higher than they used to be? 
• Are the average gusts higher than they used to be?  
• Are the maximum gusts higher than they used to be?

These all are going to lead to slightly different answers. Let's start with the average wind speeds.

Wind speeds are what we could consider to be the consistent wind speeds.  As a trend, you can see that these have sort of dropped.  The biggest wind speeds were in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The wind speeds in more recent decades have actually been lower.

If we only looked at the sustained winds, the answer would be that we are not seeing more wind events. That said, when there is a wind event, that is usually the result of gusts!

When you look at the data of average wind gusts, you can see that they have almost steadily increased over time.  While the 1970s and 80s had some peaks in the data, there is a definite trend in average wind gusts from 1990 to the present.

The wind gusts themselves are getting stronger, too!  

We call this "Maximum Wind Gusts."

These are the highest recorded gusts in a given year.  You can see that there have been some gusty periods in the data we have here.  That said, none have been gustier than 2022 and 2026.  These years have had the highest gusts in this set of data that looks back into the 1950s!

This means that if you have noticed more wind events in the last couple of years, the gust data would say that you are observant, even if the sustained or constant wind speed is lower. 

These wind gusts are usually the product of strong pressure gradients or large changes in pressure over short distances.  

This leads to bigger wind gusts, which are responsible for bigger wind events.  

These pressure changes can be the result of natural cycles like El Niño and La Niña, along with rising global temperatures.

So, if you think it is gustier than it used to be, you are absolutely correct!