Economy

Nashville Leads List of Windiest American Cities

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 17, 2017 11:50 am

Last Updated: June 12, 2020 8:23 am

For those who think Chicago deserves the title of the “Windiest City in America,” think again. Based on new research, Nashville holds that title. Chicago is not even in the top 10.

CoreLogic’s Windy City Index took two measures and combined them to make its list. The first was number of wind-related events and the second the highest wind speed in the city over the course of 2016. Wind events are “measured at the city center plus a 10-mile radius, as well as the total force caused by any severe wind gusts of 60 mph or more.” Nashville had 21 these events, which tied it with Jackson, Mississippi, by that yardstick. Nashville had a top wind speed of 71 miles per hour.

Many of the top 10 windy cities were located in the central Midwest, far from the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. CoreLogic points out that a number of cities on these coasts had the highest single day wind speed for 2016, although the high levels were not sustained through many days or weeks. The highest single wind speed measure in the United States was at the Kennedy Space Center, at 101 miles per hour, during Hurricane Matthew. Measured by peak wind speed at a point during the year, all the cities at the top of the list were in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina.

After Nashville were Reno, Nevada; Jackson, Mississippi; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; Little Rock, Arkansas; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Clarksville, Tennessee; and Charleston, South Carolina.

Windy City Ranking

Source: CoreLogic, 2016