Wichita Life
Posts
🌾 How windy is Wichita?

🌾 How windy is Wichita?

"it would be nice out..."

Landon Huslig
April 16, 2025

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning, Wichita!

Yesterday was tax day. If this is the first you’re hearing about that.. well, just go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Let's get to it!

- Landon Huslig

Referral Program

This is our current referral program:

We would love to better understand what you actually want, so I want to check the pulse:

For the first reward level, what would you like?

Together with Wichita Riverfest

The 3rd Riverfest Gravel Grinder is a bike event on a combination of riding surfaces that has a 20-mile ride and a 40-mile race.

Online registration is open! Space is limited so deadline to register is subject to change.

Not into biking..or gravel?

There is also a Photography Contest…with a cash prize 🤯

Awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes will be presented. As well as an honorable mention in each category. Join in the fun! With 7 different categories and multiple cash prizes per unique category, shutterbugs will have many chances to win!

How windy is Wichita?

“It would be so nice out if it weren’t so windy.”

If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard (or said) this, I would be a very wealthy man.

While watching the wind aggressively gently blow the trees in my back yard last week, I asked myself, “how windy is Wichita, really?”

You always hear about Chicago being the “windy city”, but what about Windy Wichita?

Well, I did some digging and I officially have the answer.

Compared to the rest of the nation, Wichita is very windy.

Ranking

Wichita makes its way onto a lot of “Best of (or worst of)” lists for the US.

We have one more for you:

Top 10 Windiest Cities in the US

That’s right, it’s not just something everyone says, we are actually one of the windiest places in America.

We are 9th (higher on some lists, lower on others) with our fellow Kansas town of Dodge City coming in #1. Dodge City is higher due to closer proximity to the mountains.

Contrary to popular belief, Chicago is only the 35th windiest city (it is named the windy city due to the cities politicians were “full of hot air” back in the 19th century).

Why is it so windy in Wichita (or Kansas)?

There are several things in play when it comes to how windy it is in our city and in our state, let's dive into a few.

Geography & Topography

Kansas is said to be “flatter than a pancake”, but apparently some pancakes are flatter than others.

We are actually only the 7th flattest state in the US (behind Florida, Illinois, North Dakota, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Delaware).

But this does play a huge factor. Without any mountain ranges or large bodies of water (no, El Dorado Lake doesn’t count) or really any “surface roughness”, there is nothing to obstruct or slow down the winds as they sweep across the Great Plains from the mountains.

Low-Level Jet

If you look to our neighbors in the west, you’ll see something we like to call the Rocky Mountains. These big guys play a big role in the wind.

When the jet stream crosses the mountains it leads to low pressure systems developing close to the surface and to the east.

Air Masses Meet

The mountains aren’t the only thing that encourages a windy state here. The Central US is a battleground for different air masses.

When the cool, dry air from Canada meets up with the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico (or is it Gulf of America now…?), it can lead to strong winds as the air masses mix.

This is especially true in the spring and fall.

When all of these different air masses meet and it gets windy, you start to understand where the nickname Tornado Alley comes from.

Chinook Winds

Occasionally, Wichita and other parts of Kansas experience the Chinook winds.

These are warm, dry winds that originate in the Rocky Mountains. As these winds descend the eastern slopes of the Rockies, they warm up and pick up speed, leading to particularly warm and windy conditions in the plains.

Fun Facts for Wichita

Average Wind Speed: 11.5mph (Dodge City is 15mph)
Average Windiest Month: April
Record Wind Gust: 101 mph on July 11, 1993

Now that you have taken my (unqualified) crash course on Kansas weather and meteorology, the next time someone says something about why it’s so windy, you can reply: