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Heather’s Weather Whys: Has this spring been windier than normal?

We had quite a few windy days in April, but how does the recent pattern stack up against what’s normal for spring? Find out in this week’s Heather’s Weather Whys.
Credit: WGRZ

Late winter and early spring always bring windy days. It’s a natural part of the transition from a cold pattern to a warmer one.

As the two temperature regimes battle it out, storm systems are produced more frequently and with storms comes wind. 

RELATED: What makes the wind blow?

But the weather pattern over the past few weeks and really the past few months led to what was an unusually breezy April, at least going by recent wind records.

During April 2020, eight days measured a wind gust of at least 39 mph. The average peak wind gust for the entire month was 32 mph and that includes a handful of days where gusts stayed below 20 mph.

Over the past 10 years, the normal average peak wind gust for the month of April is 26 mph; well below what we experienced last month.

Credit: WGRZ

2020 as a whole has had impressive wind numbers. The peak wind gust so far this year was 69 mph back on January 12. That’s the highest wind gust reported at the Buffalo Airport in at least the last five years. 

Learn how medium and long range weather patterns contributed to the uptick in winds n this week’s Heather’s Weather Whys.

New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening. You can also watch on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on Channel 2 News.

If you have a weather question for Heather to answer, send it to her at heather.waldman@wgrz.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

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