A 10-Year Climatology of High-Wind Events and Examination of Watches, Warnings, and Advisories on the East Coast

This study developed a climatology of high wind events (HWEs) over a 10-year period from 2009 – 2018 on the East Coast of the United States and examined National Weather Service watches, warnings, and advisories (WWAs) during HWEs. The climatology was created using hourly and special wind observations from 15 stations over five regions form north to south along the east coast. Each region included three stations, one near the coast, one further inland, and one near the Appalachian Mountains. It was found that coastal stations were the windiest (most HWEs) with lesser frequency the further inland the station. Majority of the HWEs occurred in the winter months in the north and trended towards the summer months the further south the stations. Also found from the climatology was most of the HWEs had durations of less than one hour. WWAs were examined at Dulles International Airport and Ocean City, Maryland two hours before through two hours after each HWEs; as well as, noting HWEs with no WWAs issued. The most common WWA during a HWE was wind advisories with 272 issued during HWEs. For HWEs when a WWA was not issued, surface analyses were examined to identify the synoptic situation in these cases. Results of this analysis showed that the most common weather pattern was post cold frontal with 16 cases of this happening. Overall, HWEs were found to be relatively uncommon and can be difficult to recognize synoptic patterns for winds that will exceed HWE criteria.