Over the past few months the wind here in Colorado Springs has really started to get on my nerves...probably because I spent so much time and effort on the backyard and we haven't been able to use it because of the weather. I brought this up at work and suggested that this year seems like the windiest year I can remember - at least since I moved back. Well, I don't think many people agreed with me and if they didn't disagree with me the response was that it's always windy here in the spring.
So, I set out to find out whether or not this year has been the windiest year since 2007 (when we moved back). I've been thinking about this for awhile but couldn't find the statistics online until last night. I know, I'm a complete nerd...but when I have a hunch I really want to find the answer. Thanks to Weather Underground, I was able to find historical data for the Colorado Springs Airport for every day I wanted. In addition to the normal weather, it listed daily statistics for these 3 wind categories (in mph):
1) High Wind Speed
2) Average Wind Speed
3) High Gust Speed
I copied the weather data from January 1 - June 21 for each year (2007-2010) into Excel and did a few summations and averages...blah blah blah...yadda yadda yadda. Long story short, the results are:
Overall Windiest Year
1st - 2008
2nd - 2009
3rd - 2010
4th - 2007
Surprisingly, 2010 was only 3rd on the list of windiest years. However, this really doesn't answer the question that I was asking...that is, more appropriately, has this spring been more windy then previous years? In all honesty, I would have no idea how much wind we get during the winter months of January-March because I'm inside all of the time. However, April - June is when the weather warms up and everyone wants to be outside. This year, every time I've been or wanted to go outside it seems like the wind was annoyingly blowing. So, what does Spring 2010 look like?
Overall Windiest Spring
1st - 2010
2nd - 2008
3rd - 2009
4th - 2007
Basically, Spring 2010 is 1st in total/average high wind speeds, has the most days where the average wind speed has been higher then all other years for the same date, 1st in total/average wind gust speed and has the most days where the wind gust speed has been higher then all other years for the same date. 2008 is a very close second in the first two categories, but 2010 is head and shoulders (I refrained from using the phrase "blows away") above every other year in wind gust speed.
So, if you feel like it's been really windy this spring, it's because it has. Well, at least compared to the previous 3 years. As a side note for comparative purposes, year to date Colorado Springs has only had 2-4 mph more average wind then Spokane (the airports anyway).