Today's winds here in Buffalo are strong, but no where near the strongest winds we've ever experienced. According to the Nation Weather Service, this wouldn't even rank in the top 10 windiest days here. The records are as follows:

82 MPH SW FEB 16, 1967
81 MPH W AUG 24, 1972
79 MPH S JUN 7, 1980
75 MPH W DEC 28, 2008
74 MPH W APR 6, 1985
73 MPH SW NOV 12, 1992
72 MPH W MAR 10, 1986
72 MPH SW APR 30, 1984
71 MPH W AUG 15, 1965
71 MPH SW JAN 1, 1985
70 MPH SW JAN 26, 1965

I always wonder about these measurements. They seem low. They always do. Maybe weather feels more extreme than it is around here because usually it is so mild. I recall one blustery January morning in 2008 when I had to catch a flight to Denver. I sat on the mostly empty airplane at the gate at 6AM feeling the plane physically lifting off of the ground with the gusts. This wasn't an econo-jet - this was a Airbus A319. We have had winds strong enough to flip over airplanes at the airport. More frequently, cross winds on I-90 have toppled over container style trailers in transport.

However, all of that is minor compared to the damage this particular storm has caused throughout the Midwest. Tornadoes spawned have again left paths of devastation throughout the central United States.

One of those things we don't often face in this area. We get our share of nasty weather in terms of snowfall, but tornadoes, hurricanes and other more devastating weather anomalies rarely scar this part of the country. The top wind gusts in the infamous Blizzard of '77 were only 69-MPH. It didn't even make the top 10 here, and that was the worst natural disaster most of us can recall hitting this region.

Let's be thankful we do live in an area a little more insulated from the worst of what our Earth can throw at us.