Wind climate variability and extremes were analyzed using the ERA Interim reanalysis 10m winds at 1.5° X 1.5° grid spacing and four times daily resolution over the Atlantic region from 1989 to 2010. The monthly mean wind speeds show a season cycle in the North Atlantic with strong wind (> 11 m/s) occurring in winter. The calm season is in summer with wind speeds ranging from 5 to 7m/s. The maximum wind analyses show that the strongest winds around 24 to 28 m/s occur over the northern Atlantic during winter months, which apparently is related to the winter storm activities. The maximum wind speeds during fall reach to 14 to 26m/s., which clearly is associated with the hurricane activities.

EOF1 analysis of average wind speed during winter months (DJF: December-January-February) shows a clear pattern similar to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and explains 37% of the total variance. The associated PC1 time series correlates negatively to the NAO with -0.83 and is significant at the 95% level. The 20-year linear tend of monthly mean wind speed show a sandwich structure, in which the increasing trend occurs along the mid-Atlantic region and the decreasing trend along the northern and southern Atlantic regions. This sandwich-like trend pattern is more significant during the winter months and apparently related to NAO activities.

The zonal wind (U component wind speed) climatology shows a dominant easterly wind in the tropics and a dominant westerly wind in the mid-latitudes. In the Arctic region, the west and east winds are about the same in magnitude. This suggests that the winds transfer momentum energy to the west in the tropics and to the east in the mid-latitudes, but there is no dominant direction in zonal momentum energy transfer over the Arctic.

The meridional wind (V component wind speed) climatology demonstrates that the northerly winds have a higher overall effect in the region than the southerly, i.e. an overall higher northerly wind speed in the region than southerly. However in the Arctic region the northerly and southerly wind speeds appear to be equal in magnitude. This suggests that a net southern transport of momentum energy exists in the Atlantic region.