Rochester Moves Up on List of Windiest Cities in U.S.
If you thought it was windy here in Rochester Monday, boy, were you right. But it makes sense, given where the Med City placed on this list of the Windiest Cities in the U.S.
Living here in Rochester, we're used to dealing with the wind. Rochester has routinely been named one of the windiest cities not only here in Minnesota but across the United States, as well. And we've sure been living up to that ranking so far this week.
According to the National Weather Service office in La Crosse, the Rochester International Airport recorded a wind gust of 53 miles per hour (mph) Monday to take the top spot in its list of Peak Wind Gusts Monday. Stewartville recorded a gust of 46 mph, and the helipad at Mayo Clinic's St. Marys Hospital recorded a 44 mph gust as well.
Which totally validates-- and maybe even moves us up on-- this new listing of the Top 10 Windiest Cities in the U.S. Back in 2019, this USA Today story noted that Rah-Rah-Rochester was ranked 9th on the list. But, as of September 2020 (the most recent rankings I could find), Minnesota's Med City has moved up to #6 on the NOAA list of America's Windiest Cities, according to GroundWorks.com.
According to their rankings, which were compiled by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, Rochester's average wind speed of 12.1 mph is pretty darn windy, with only five other cities ranked as having windier condition than we do. (Those would be Goodland, Kansas; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Amarillo, Texas; Dodge City, Kansas; and Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.)
And while we definitely had some windy gusts earlier this week, ours weren't all that impressive compared to the massive wind gusts recorded at the Mount Washington Observatory-- some of which have topped 100 miles an hour! Check out this video to see what it's like to try to stand up in THAT kind of wind!
Of course, while the wind blowing your garbage cans down the street CAN be annoying here in Rochester, most of us have grown used to it. But that's not the ONLY annoying thing that happens here, is it? Keep scrolling to check out some OTHER annoying things that Rochesterites have to deal with too.
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