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How to Protect Your Home When You Live in a Windy City

Wind can be one of the most damaging things for a home. It’s important to remember that protecting your home means protecting every aspect of it, not just investing in waterproofing or anti-infestation measures. You also need to protect it from wind. The good news is that you can combat wind damage in your home, even if you live in one of the windiest cities in the United States.

The 20 Windiest Cities in the United States

There are certain cities that are windier than others. Here are the 20 windiest cities in the United States on average.

  1. Mt. Washington, NH: 35.7
  2. Dodge City, KS: 13.1
  3. Amarillo, TX: 12.9
  4. Cheyenne, WY: 12.3
  5. Goodland, KS: 12.1
  6. Rochester, MN: 12.1
  7. Clayton, NM: 12.1
  8. Lubbock, TX: 12.0
  9. Casper, WY: 12.0
  10. Corpus Christie, TX: 11.7
  11. Wichita, KS: 11.5
  12. Boston, MA: 11.5
  13. Great Falls, MT: 11.4
  14. New York, NY: 11.3
  15. Oklahoma City, OK: 11.3
  16. Wichita Falls, TX: 11.2
  17. Grand Island, NE: 11.2
  18. Fargo, ND: 11.1
  19. Galveston, TX: 11.1
  20. Concordia, KS: 11.0

This information comes from the National Centers for Environmental Information, which has catalogued wind speed data since 1984. You can see that absolutely nothing comes close to Mount Washington, which is far and away the windiest place in the United States.

Other Reasons for Windiness

When looking at the list of windiest cities, you may have noticed that some cities like Chicago aren’t present. This is because the official wind speed of the city only accounts for natural wind. Many cities are much windier than their “official” rating because of wind tunnels.

Wind tunnels happen when a city’s wind becomes squeezed between skyscrapers. This makes the wind speed on the ground much higher than the wind speed above the skyscrapers. Cities like Chicago, which only has an average wind speed of 9.9 MPH, can feel much windier than they are due to this wind effect.

Methods to Protect Your Home From Wind Damage

Protecting your home from wind damage should be a crucial part of keeping your home safe in general. If you’re weatherproofing your house in other ways, you should also be windproofing your house. This way, you can avoid debris problems, shingles and siding coming off, and even your whole roof coming off.

The best way to protect your home from wind damage is to talk to an expert who’s good at windproofing. Many basement and foundation repair experts also know how wind damage works. They can assess the wind damage probabilities of your local area and suggest preventative measures.

Conclusion

Wind damage is definitely serious, but it doesn’t have to negatively impact your home. If you’re willing to take steps before the wind damage occurs, you can stave it off effectively. Just make sure you talk to an expert if you’re worried about the possibility for wind damage in your own home.