First Alert Weather in Depth: Wind, not good for the outdoor holiday decorations

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – It is never a good thing for the outdoor holiday decorations. But on two occasions recently we had strong, gusty winds blow into town. The first was on November 30^th. According to the National Weather Service the top wind speed was 50 mph. And then just a couple of days later we got another high wind event with a speed of 53 mph. That wind event was on Saturday.

So what is going on and why are we getting these gusty winds?  Remember, the atmosphere is always trying to reach a point of equilibrium. But it never reaches that point, but it is always trying and that is part of the reason we have low and high pressure systems. When there is just a small pressure difference the winds are going to be weak, but if you increase the pressure difference the winds are going to much stronger. This is similar to when you open a can of pop soda and you hear that “whooshing” sound.  That is the sound of release of pressure which is similar to what we have in the atmosphere.

What this means is we are still looking at the battle between the fall and the winter seasons here in Western New York