WILD WINDS SINCE CHRISTMAS

Written By: Scott Hetsko

Chicago can claim fame to being home to our 44th president but Rochester takes hold of the "windy city" title at least over the past week or so. A series of powerful cold fronts since Christmas eve have caused rapid acceleration in our wind gusts locally. The strongest gusts recorded at Rochester was 63 mph on December 28th.

Strong Southwest winds tend to increase in speed in Western New York in part because of Lake Erie. Wind traveling over water encounters less friction than wind over land. The result is an increase in speed from Buffalo Eastward into Rochester.