Powerful winds in Central Texas this spring have grabbed some attention.
In March, blustery weather prompted red flag wildfire warnings, and choked the skies with dust and smoke carried in from our west.
Springtime is typically the windiest time of year in Central Texas. But when you look at the data, this spring in Austin does not, so far, stand out as far as average wind speeds go.
“In springtime, you have big temperature differences between cold in the north and warm in the south," Victor Murphy, climate service program manager for the National Weather Service, said. "On account of that, you tend to get these higher pressure differences. The higher the pressure differences, the stronger the wind.”
Despite some impressively gusty days, Murphy said, the average wind speed recorded at the airport last month was 9.5 miles an hour. That’s about 6% higher than normal.
He said sustained winds were similarly unremarkable, making it the 11th windiest March, on average, since 2000.
“So, really, nothing all that astounding," he said.
Still, records show there were some very strong gusts of wind recorded. Unlike "sustained winds," gusts are sudden increases in wind speed that don’t typically last more than several seconds.
According to Murphy, six of the top 10 strongest wind gusts since 1998 happened last month. Five of them occurred on one day — March 4 — and the sixth on March 23.
The wind gust on the 23rd, which was related to thunderstorms in the area, blew at 53 nautical miles, or knots, an hour (a knot is about 1.15 land miles). It ranked as the third most powerful wind gust recorded over the last 27 years.
Murphy said the gusts on March 4 stand out in one way: They were not related to thunderstorms. That makes the 45-knot gust that day the highest non-thunderstorm gust on record since 1998.
He thinks the strong wind gusts in March may be why a Washington Post article declared this spring the sixth windiest in Texas recorded history.
“There's different ways of slicing and dicing data," Murphy said.
Even if heavy winds don’t break weather records, they can still pose danger — damaging power lines, fanning wildfires and degrading air quality.
Meteorologists advise being mindful of falling tree limbs, securing outdoor items and staying indoors if dangerously strong winds are in the forecast.
