Study confirms McCook is a windy place

GOODLAND, Kansas -- It's not just your imagination, it can get windy around McCook.

Not only that, we're the eighth-ranked place in the tri-state area when it comes to thunderstorm gusts of 58 mph or greater, according to a peer-reviewed paper about such events.

McCook is one of four ASOS -- Automated Surface Observing System sites in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska that were part of the study, in which researchers wanted to contrast wind gusts measured by meteorological equipment with gusts that are estimated by human observers.

According to the study, McCook had 11 events when gusts exceeded 58 mph from 2003 to 2009.

Burlington, Colorado, was fourth in the area with 18, Lubbock Texas had 15, Hill City, Kansas 13, Liberal, Kansas, Childress, Texas, Guadalupe Pass, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas with 12 each, Dodge City, Kansas, tied with McCook at 11 and Goodland, Kansas had 10.

Severe thunderstorm wind gusts can result from dry microbursts when precipitation falling from a thunderstorm evaporates when it hits drier air below, cooling and descending rapidly to produce 70 to 90 mph gusts or more. Precipitation can also channel faster-moving air from aloft to produce a swath of damage on the surface, and well-organized storms, known as supercells with their own mechanism for creating winds.

Read the entire study at http:// 1.usa.gov/11MgB8W