Wyoming Wind

The wind is blasting like mad today, with sustained speeds between 40 and 50 mph and gusts well above 60.  The major roads were closed for better portions of the last few days and several the city-issued garbage and recycling bins have been knocked over in the alleyway.  The young crow that often visits was looking decidedly rumpled, and a poor little brown creeper's feathers were mussed as he unsuccessfully tried to find a wind-block in the cottonwood tree.  Tumbleweeds roll through parking lots.  Temps have warmed up into the low 40s, so the snow is turning to sheets of ice.  It is very unpleasant outside.

I know that Wyoming is a windy place, but today seems a little extreme.  The house is creaking with each gust.  Generally, the wind seems to bring with it some blue skies, but today it is grey and ugly.

I found a website, enotes.com, on which someone asked if Chicago was indeed the windiest city.  Answer:  "In 1990, Chicago ranked twenty-first in the list of 68 windy cities, with an average wind speed of 10.3 miles (16.6 kilometers) per hour. Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an average wind speed of 12.9 miles ( 20.8 kilometers) per hour, ranks number one. It is closely followed by Great Falls, Montana, which has an average wind speed of 12.8 miles (20.6 kilometers) per hour."  Other sites have Casper, WY edging out Cheyenne as a windier city.  Medicine Bow, a small town west of Laramie made famous as the setting of The Virginian, claims to be the windiest place in all Wyoming.  Since they have a huge field of wind turbines, they are probably not exaggerating.