Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Hi, I am trying to find some data on wind throughout the united states for a project that I am working on. Where might I find maps or data that would show wind and wind patterns in different regions of the US, and also the speeds and historical consistency. If you could help me with this I would really appreciate it.
Nathan B.
**********************************************************
We do get a lot of questions about past weather, climate data and people who want help with projects or homework. You'd be surprised how many school kids ask us questions the night before their reports are due!!!
First, let's get you to a site where you can find some wind data. If we recall, wind direction is given on the compass, with 360 or 0 being a north wind and 180 a south wind. You can find wind data by using a station plot. As we draw a station observation, the sky observation is given as a circle for a particular city. Then the wind barb is drawn off of that circle. A line coming out of the south side of the circle (at 180) would be a south wind. This might be a little difficult but would give you some awesome charts to find winds, and we'll try to get you a regular site that isn't as technical.
On the right of the page, here's a link to help you learn how to read a station plot. Using one of my favorite weather sites at Unisys, you can actually plot the station observations by regions and see wind direction. Another site is the station plot maker from Northern Illinois University. This allows you to soley just plot wind barbs (those lines sticking out of the station observation) if you want and you can pick by state or region, truly as useful tool for weather analysis. You can also use contour maps instead to get wind speed data, this might be easier to read for some people.
Now, as far as past wind speed goes, or archived data, if you are looking for a particular station, you can just go to our Faq's for some info on weather history. But if you want detailed weather histories for wind speed for a certain area you will have to use the data from the National Climate Data Center and unfortunately that is not free. It costs around a dollar or so. A link is on the right. Some data is available at the Western Region Climate Center as well, maybe that will help you to find what you are looking for. Best of luck on your project.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
