Windy City

Having grown up in Chicago, I heard the title given my city often.  I remember one cold winter's evening when I was downtown and the wind was rushing up Washington from the lake -an experience that even made brass monkeys shiver.  It was many years later that I learned that the expression, "Windy City" was actually coined relative to the political wind associated with the lobbying efforts to make Chicago the home of the World Columbia Exposition and only secondarily meteorological in nature.


Based on my life experience, Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, easily captures the world title for Windy City.  Wind gusts up to 90 kph are not uncommon.  The city is situated between two walls of land which extend out into the bay creating a venturi effect as the wind comes in from the sea.  Once it blew me into the street while I was off balance.