Wither the Wind

We have been enjoying our awning.  I know that seems an odd statement, but we haven’t always been able to do that while RV’ing.  And it brought up the question where in the U.S. are the winds more pronounced?

Enter Google to the rescue.

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What can’t you find on the InterWebs?  It wasn’t long before I had a very interesting map of the U.S. showing mean windspeed averages in the U.S.

I have to tell you that I have serious doubts about the accuracy of this map — I have never driven West when I didn’t have horrendous winds out of the West impeding my progress and sapping my fuel mileage, but this is what the chart purports to say. Note this is a January map.

A little more searching and I found a May map. It’s not much different in the areas that concern me, but there are significant differences summer to winter.

The reason I was interested is that here in the Midwest I’m able to leave my awning out much of the time.  In S. Texas and Florida I never left the awning out if we left the coach for the day and I rarely left it out at all because the winds were variable enough that I didn’t want to risk damage.  I have sort of a mental guideline that over 20 mph the awning comes in.  Just to be safe.

This search did result in a more extensive look-see and I found another source for information — the national renewable energies industry.  Their maps are different in that you can view windspeed at a couple elevations:  30 meters and 80 meters — so that’s not telling about ground speed, but it does give you an interesting look into the way Nature works on our planet.

If this is something you are interested spend a little time and evaluate your own favorite places to camp.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll be here tomorrow to chat.