Is Seattle a Windy city? (Vancouver, Naselle: neighborhoods, trees, areas)

[mamainfl]

Are there times of the year that Seattle experiences windy conditions? It seems that when I look at the weather forecast it generally is around 5-7 mph. Does it get windy in winter? Just curious.

[sean98125]

Windiest times seem to be November and March.

[Kayela]

Seattle is not usually windy. So the few times we do get windstorms (the biggest ones are in Nov), it can be a big deal. With the general lack of wind and the frequent moisture - trees here don't develop the root structure that they do in drier parts of the country, so it's not that unusual to lose a few hundred during one.

We have bridges that float on the water. You certainly couldn't have that if there were frequent high winds. The lack of wind and insects make it really pleasant to be outdoors.

[MmeZeeZee]

It's windy enough to ruin the day for a short flowy skirt but not enough to fly a kite.

[FromChicagotoSeattle]

Rarely, thank goodness.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by mamainfl

Are there times of the year that Seattle experiences windy conditions? It seems that when I look at the weather forecast it generally is around 5-7 mph. Does it get windy in winter? Just curious.

Originally Posted by Kayela

Seattle is not usually windy. So the few times we do get windstorms (the biggest ones are in Nov), it can be a big deal. With the general lack of wind and the frequent moisture - trees here don't develop the root structure that they do in drier parts of the country, so it's not that unusual to lose a few hundred during one.

We have bridges that float on the water. You certainly couldn't have that if there were frequent high winds. The lack of wind and insects make it really pleasant to be outdoors.

I'm from Vancouver, BC, and was surprised to learn that although not usually windy, Seattle is in fact windier than Vancouver. Southerly air masses during rainy weather systems are compressed between the Olympic and Cascade Moutains, resulting in gusts, higher than in Vancouver. The 1962 Columbus Day storm had higher gusts in Seattle than Vancouver.
During heat waves centered in The US Southwest and as far as the Columbia River Basin, the city gets fairly hot weather, and a "thermal trough" is created over inland desert areas where very hot air rises. In Seattle this results in cooler northwesterly air being drawn down through Puget Sound, result in a steady summer breeze, making hot spells very tolerable.
For comparison, Vancouver BC, though fairly close to Seatle and similar (though rainier) in climate, does get strong cold easterly winter outflow winds that are stronger - and colder- than in Seattle, as well as powerful Northwesterllies blowing down the large open Georgia Strait as a clear high pressure cell moves to dispalce replace low pressure and southeasterly rain.

[thatguy950]

I’d say somewhat, maybe more frequently breezy with occasional strong storms that topple trees a few times a year

[dozerbear]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I'm from Vancouver, BC, and was surprised to learn that although not usually windy, Seattle is in fact windier than Vancouver. Southerly air masses during rainy weather systems are compressed between the Olympic and Cascade Moutains, resulting in gusts, higher than in Vancouver. The 1962 Columbus Day storm had higher gusts in Seattle than Vancouver.

The strongest recorded wind speed within Seattle city limits is 70 mph on October 21, 1934, second is December 14-15, 2006 at 69 mph, and third is October 12, 1962 at 66 mph at Sand Point NAS. For the entire Northwest though, the 1962 storm dwarfs everything else. Naselle, on the Washington coast recorded a gust of 160 mph, the Oregon coast had gusts of 145, 138, and 131 mph. 46 people died, and 15 billion board feet of timber was blown down. My dad was logging that day, and almost didn't make it out of the woods.

[RustinginSeattle]

Some neighborhoods are windier than others. Sunset Hill (west of Ballard) is very breezy after 4pm daily. I noticed close to a 5 degree temperature perceived temperature difference between Philly Ridge and Sunset Hill. Some people love that, but I run cold, so I didn't prefer the cold breeze.

[Diana Holbrook]

Oh we have wind storms. Anything more than 40 mph will have some trees down and power outages.

People in the flat lands may scoff at our 50 mph wind storms... but they don't have tall trees like we have.