2018-04-18

Author: Mary Knapp

In Kansas, damaging winds aren’t always the product of tornadoes. At the National Weather Service office in Wichita, the highest wind gust was reported on July 11, 1993 at 101 miles per hour. Unofficial backup equipment recorded 109 miles per hour. On April 14, 2012, a wind gust of 84 miles per hour was reported. Kansas doesn’t have a monopoly on these events. One really unfortunate high wind event occurred on April Apr 16, 1990 in Oklahoma City. On that day, thunderstorm wind gusts to 100 mph in the area swept away many Federal tax returns being transported from a mail cart to a waiting truck about the time of the midnight deadline. It makes one grateful for the modern technology of e-filing!

Figure 1. Wind Turbine (WDL Archives)

Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu