CLEVELAND — During Tuesday's edition of "3News at 5," Jay Crawford asked a simple question as we got to the weather segment: "Has it been more windy this summer than normal?"
After being rather dismissive on set and stating that there were probably some stats to be found, I went hunting. We're going to go over A LOT of data to get to the bottom of this question.
Let's get the clarification stuff out of the way: All of this data is from the Cleveland National Weather Service office and Iowa State University's Iowa Environmental Mesonet (a data bank). Because this conversation took place on July 16, we will take "summer" to mean June 1 (the start of Meteorological Summer) to July 15. Data is from the official reporting station at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and the long-term data goes back to 1948. All figures are in miles per hour (mph).
We will be using two definitions of "normal," or in other words "average." One will be this year compared to the previous five years, and the other will be how 2024 compares to the entire dataset going back to 1948.
And now to the good stuff...
The average wind speed between June 1 and July 15 for 2024 was 8.19 mph. Compared to the previous five years, only 2022 had a higher average. The average of the previous five years was 7.84 mph, so 2024's 8.19 is the winner. Short-term average wind speed, Jay was RIGHT!
However, the average wind speed for the entire dataset going back to 1948 was 8.77 mph, which is greater than this year's 8.19. Long-term average wind speed, Jay was WRONG!
A few notes about my average wind speed research:
- Three of the previous five years were in the bottom 10 for the entire dataset.
- The 30-year average for sustained wind speed is actually trending down over the entire dataset.
As we talk about wind gusts, the average for this year's time period has been 26.34 mph. That's above each of the previous five years and also above the average of those five years. The average of the entire dataset is 18.91 mph, so 2024 is easily higher than that. Only one year in the full dataset has had a higher average, and that was 28.1 mph in 2007. Jay was RIGHT!
A few notes about my average wind gust research:
- The last year below the long term average was 2003.
- The highest average was 28.1 mph in 2007.
- The 30-year average for wind gusts is actually trending up over the entire dataset.
So Jay was very correct for the short term; not so much for the long term. He said that was because he's only been back home for a few years. He also made the point that very few people watching date back to 1948 (congratulations if you do!) to remember that entire timeframe.
I'm just reporting what the numbers show. Either way, it was a fun talking point, and a great excuse to dig into some data.
If you'd like to do some research of your own, here are the resources I used: