I don't know whether it's the windiest, but Estes Park (where my wife and I have a second home) is awfully windy, with sustained winds in the 40's and gusts into the 70's on a fairly frequent basis. We have a wood shake roof (wouldn't meet code anymore) and it rattles like mad in a good wind.

We're under a high wind watch today as well, and will get another 'San Juan Dust Storm' where huge clouds of dust blow in from the Arizona desert. The good news is that it creates some loess soils that are the best farm land around. The bad news is that I don't particularly want loess soils on my roof and window sills.

I'd say, for windy-ness, the front range between North of Denver up to Cheyenne, right against the mountains, would rank pretty high. My sis lives up there, and they map out the homes of the new comers so they can dodge the picnic tables that fly out of their yards.

Or South Park, where fly fishing is pretty easy if you're going the right direction, as in just hold the rod straight up in the air and the wind casts it for you.

My vote would have to be Casper WY. At one point they were the highest per capita suicide rate, generally accepted that the wind was the cause.

I remember crossing the street in downtown Casper one time and I didnÂt want to. How I kept my feet under me and a car didnÂt hit me was a blessing.

However, Boulder probably gets the highest gusts. Those flatirons are beyond belief when they are getting high winds.

Highalt, you can check out that website below - just scroll down to the wind links. What, does garbage day come on Windsday?

Fred, Estes Park would probably be a very windy place since it is so close to Wyoming and windy Cheyenne (ave. annual 12.9 mph). Not too many cities are listed but it's also interesting to see which months are the windest - not always March (sometimes January - oh, Mien Got in Himmel!)

Alamosa has had SUSTAINED winds to 71 mph and so has Salt Lake City and Cheyenne but Pocatello and Lewiston in ID and Missoula, MT still stand after 72, Helena with 73, Ely, NV with 74, Billings with 79! and Casper with 81!! and Great Falls with 82!!! (Could we throw these last 3 out of RMG - - I'm sure in time they'd just blow away. ;o)

DigitS

Here is a link that might be useful: Comparative Climatic Data

I've been to Wyoming and it's definitely windier there than here, but I'm near the foothills where we've had gusts over 100 mph. Regular shingles don't cut it - have to go T-locks or better. Windows have broken, sheds have rolled across yards. I'm a bit east of highway 93, which has been closed due to winds.
The chinooks we get in January are just horrible.

BTW - I am a kite flyer! :-)

I remember a few years back, my husband was working on a jobsite at the base of Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs). Fortunatly he ran late that day and did not get a front parking spot. There was a wind gust, no idea what speed, but it blew out the windshields on all the vehicles parked in the front row!

B

Digit, thanks for the link, that was the chart I was remembering. Unfortunately, the closest city listed was Grand Junction, and their weather and ours is a world apart. I was there yesterday, on a field trip to the Botanic Garden with my son's class, and they had lilacs and wysteria blooming. We still have tulips and daffodils, but our nights are much colder then theirs, and of course we have the wind.

Well, as a Casperite I have to get in on this one (it wasn't for nothing that I picked this name)! We go back and forth with Cheyenne for 5th/6th windiest town in the country - someplace in Kansas wins 1st place, I think. I have had my share of gardening disasters caused by wind - tomatoes snapped off at the base, small tree uprooted, brand new BBQ tossed across the patio (ok, that's not gardening, but it really irritated me). And, yes, all the shingles here are T-lock. Haven't had any flying picnic tables, though; best thing I've captured was a Sponge Bob kiddie pool that was cartwheeling across the yard.

But I have to agree, garbage day is worst. Not only am I sick of picking other people's loose garbage off my lawn, but when I first moved here it was the source of another valuable "life in Wyoming" lesson. Remember, if you are going to be a good samaritan and return to your upwind neighbors the garbage cans that are blowing down the block, pull don't push. If you push, chances are about 100% that the top will fly up and smack you in the face - especially bad if you are wearing glasses. Geez, that smarts!

High wind warning in Craig, gusts up to 50. Today high in mid 60's and tonight temps in the mid 20's with a chance of snow! Gosh, you have erratic weather Highalt!

I think David's right and Fred's got the windiest location in the state - the other places are down in the SE corner. (Maybe Fred's smart to only show up in the better months. :o)

As far as Windwhipped and Casper, I think we did concluded from looking at that chart a few months ago that she's got the highest annual wind speed . Follow her advice Highalt and keep your head down. (How does she get away with wearing glasses in Casper? ;o)

For me, it's off to haul brush . . . oh, fun!

DigitS

Here is a link that might be useful: Wind Power Colorado

I have two neighbors with small children and those Walmart trampolines, the blue ones with the sides. We had a few 'gusts' a couple of summers ago, and one of those trampolines was blown about 300 feet and landed in some trees.

The other one still hasn't been located.

digit - wearing glasses in Casper is easy. Only walk upwind and they will stay plastered to your face!

LOL, I was hoping youÂd find this thread, windwhipped! I think I sympathize with you and all the other folks up there in Wyoming the most! You may not technically have the strongest winds, but, from what IÂve experienced, the wind never seems to stop up there. I donÂt think IÂd deal with that very well at all myself! When we get 2 or 3 days in a row of wind down here in Denver, I get really tired of itÂbut at least I know it WILL stop again.

But I have the perfect "trash can" help for you! IÂm going to package up all the rock landscape mulch IÂm trying to get rid of and ship it to you! IÂve started putting it in my dumpster a little at a time again, and it sure does make a great "dumpster weight!" Sometimes itÂs so heavy I can hardly get it out to the curb. CanÂt help you with the lid, though! MineÂs the attached kind.

When I first saw this thread I though of coming here and saying, "we all know what the windiest city is! ItÂs Chicago, of course, since itÂs called the windy city," but I thought I might get stoned if anybody thought I was serious! As I said on another thread, people east of the Mississippi canÂt even begin to comprehend the conditions we deal with out here! And I love it! :-)

Funny thing happened one time when I was visiting my brother back in the northwest Chicago suburbs (actually not too far from Wisconsin). He has a weather station, which I love to watch when IÂm there, and it wasnÂt registering any wind. For the whole day I donÂt think it ever got above a mile or two. So I, trying to be helpful, and thinking there must be something wrong with his anemometer, mentioned the "problem" to him. He thought I was nuts! I just kept saying, you mean there are whole days when you REALLY donÂt get any wind?

Batten down the hatches! WeÂre expecting wind in Denver again later today, too!

Skybird

We get the occasional windless day - when Arvada has it's kite fly!
(Actually we had a bit of wind this year, but that's not the norm).

There are some days that it's pretty windy here in Helena, but it's nothing like the wind that blew in Falcon, CO.
We lived in COS & Falcon for three years and it would just blow and blow out there and the snowfall was always horizontal! :)

I thought I replied to this, but I guess I forgot to hit send.

We don't always have high winds, but we periodically get canyon winds, which are sustained winds in the 80-90 mph range with gusts around 130 or so. I'm not sure what the highest winds are, but sometimes the house will actually shake. Vans and Semis end up in the ditch if they try the interstate during a canyon wind, and trains are sometimes blown off the track.

After a good canyon wind, we sometimes see houses with most of the siding torn off. I used to go up and replace shingles after each one, but finally got fed up and had my roof stripped and reshingled with wind resistant shingles (nobody around here stocks the interlocking kind).

Chicago has an average annual wind speed of 10.3 mph according to the gov. ThatÂs windy but it hardly compares with Casper and Cheyenne on the charts. The capital, Springfield, has a higher average and even Milwaukee and Minneapolis have Chicago beat.

Matter of perception, I suppose.

DigitS

It's definitely perception, Steve! With the humidity in Chicago, and the wind blowing off the lake--even if it's not very much wind--it ALWAYS feels freezing cold in winter, and it ALWAYS feels hot and sticky and nasty in summer. Even on a bad day they don't get anywhere near the wind we get out here.

Skybird

Skybird, thanks for the offer of the rock mulch, but I've got plenty already! Will the city actually let you put it in the garbage? We'd get fined for that here.

Interesting about Springfield being windier than Chicago. I was born there - I must have been doomed from birth.

Hark, do I hear thunder? And, hey, that sounds like rain!! Unlike most of you guys, we had a very warm, dry winter here and the thought of rain makes me a little giddy. Think I'll run outside and encourage it.

Yeow, Windwhipped! I just checked NOAA, and you're sure enough in the middle of a thunderstorm. Hope you get the rain you need.

No! Actually we can't put rock in the trash, but we have automated pickup---everybody has an individual "wheeled" dumpster, and the truck that picks it up has a big long "claw" arm that picks it up and dumps it in the truck without anybody ever seeing it! I don't put much in at a time, so it takes a long, long time to get rid of it, but I don't know how else to get rid of it! I can't afford to pay somebody to come pick it up. I keep looking for somebody who wants it--just joined another FreeCycle and posted it there, and if I don't get any replies there, I'm gonna try Craig's List. I checked there yesterday, and there are already a bunch of people trying to give the stuff away! But if I do that, at least it'll get to a larger audience than on FC. Just gonna keep getting rid of a little bit each week, and keep looking for somebody who wants it. I hate to send it to the landfill, but from one point of view, at least it's something natural, as opposed to all the indestructible plastic that gets dumped these days. And when I'm not getting rid of rock, I only put out the dumpster once a month or less---I'm not a very good consumer---so since I'm paying for weekly pickup--whether I use it or not, and since I absolutely can't be charged with oversupplying the landfill, I figure I've got a little wiggle room! Just my rationalization! But when I see all the other neighbors putting out TWO dumpsters EVERY WEEK (they have to pay extra for the second one), I don't feel too bad about what I'm doing!

Happy rain,
Skybird

We don't get the major gusts like they do near Boulder, but we get the annoying consistent and persistent wind. If there's a storm to the south, we get the blowout. If there's a storm to the north, we get the blowout. The other day we had one of the dandiest tumbleweed stampedes I've seen in ages. Whoa! Course there was the wind with that tornado in 90. :)

Skybird - the reason your neighbors need all of those trash cans so they can dispose of their yard waste!! Between recycling and Gomer Pile (the compost pile), I only put out my trash every other week, that is for a family of five plus the neighbors!

mthawki - it doesn't snow in Falcon, it's just passing through! :)

I don't care where you are, someone is always going to say they have more wind, rain, or snow than you. I do remember hearing a report that stated Cheyenne was windier that Chicago by a lot!

B

Well, today it is more like normal for us with winds in the 20 - 30 mph range, instead of 50 - 60 mph like yesterday. It did drop to 31 degrees though, but doesn't seem to have damaged anything.

My next door neighbor works for a restaurant, and gave me some bins to put all of my winter sowing containers in.

{{gwi:380598}}

I had to retrieve one lid, but that's alot better than the whole container rolling around the yard with potting soil, seeds and/or sprouts spilling everywhere. I did bring everything that was already potted up into the garage though.

A new use for milk crates! I love them. You can put just about anything in them. I use them for soil bags(when they are open), recycling, tools, and storage. If you can still stack another one on, you can keep going!!
Great idea!

B

PS
Yes, I am that annoying in person too.

Okay, I just had to bring this back as it is time once again to "batten down the hatches". For the next two days winds are to be 20 - 30 mph with gusts reaching up to 50 mph. Just in time for garbage day!

So anyone else going to be chasing garbage cans and lawn furniture?

I donÂt remember ever wishing for wind before, but this time I am! I have a BIG pine tree of some sort in my front yard, and when I was out there today I lightly brushed against it, and the air was immediately cloudy with pollen. IÂve never seen another tree that produces as much pollen as this one, and now I need to figure out some way to cut the grass without touching that tree! I think that may be impossible since the branches hang down pretty low, so IÂm really hoping the wind weÂre supposed to get on Wednesday is strong enough to blow all the pollen to Kansas, and the mess will be over for another year. Just a couple hours of 40-50 mile an hour wind ought to do it! IÂve got my order in! Then itÂs supposed to STOP!

Did you get the trellis in your veggie garden anchored down really well, Highalt?

Skybird

The winds are howling, but at least the garbage cans have been secured in the garage. Skybird, we took your suggestion and used a couple of pieces of rebar to secure the trellis. Today will be the test to see if it holds.

I can't say if we live in the windiest area or not, but we get some high winds with gust up to and over 100mph. In December, we had such high winds that everyone's snow wound up in a giant dune in our yard, right on the path to our front door. While the neighborhood had an inch or two of snow, we had six feet...for a month!! Being from California, I said "oh, lets not shovel it, it looks cool." Uh, huh, then we were stuck with it, as it hardened, until mid April!! This photo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/23253030@N00/376667943/ , was taken over a month after the dune first was ... um...built.
I don't mind the wind, but I sure wish I had a wind break to keep my blooms from flying around!! It comes down the creek and up a tiny hill into my yard. Harumph!
:) J

Here is a link that might be useful: try this way to my snow dune pic...