Boston is always in the conversation when it comes to wind. Blame it on its proximity to the ocean and steep air-temperature differences over land and sea across all four seasons. Wind is a constant here.
Pick a season, whether rainy or dry, and you’ve probably made more than one comment on this year’s windy conditions, in particular — and you’re completely right for doing so. Boston has seen the windiest year on record, pacing an average wind gust of 30 mph across the city since Logan Airport opened in the 1930s. It is the only year on record in which the average wind gust broke 30 mph.
And this month is so far the windiest November on record by a long shot. The average wind gust of 37 mph this month is nearly 6 mph higher than the current record of 31 mph set just last year.
Boston has also seen an above-average wind speed this month and year. Wind speed is determined by the average flow during a minimum two-minute stretch, while gusts are recorded as sudden, instantaneous increases in wind that can last anywhere from a few seconds to 30 seconds.
Wind gusts are a bit more accurate in describing the impacts of weather on your everyday life, and certainly more noticeable, capturing what the wind is like on a given day.
Boston is not alone either. I pulled the wind gust data from eight other New England cities across Rhode Island and Northern New England — every single city is experiencing well-above average wind gusts at either near or record strength. Take a look at how cities near you are faring in November and 2025 versus the 30-year climatology.
What’s driving all this wind?
This year will be known as the year of variability. We had a stronger North Atlantic high pressure, while a weak La Niña has so far influenced a slightly more interior storm track for our weather systems. This has increased the pressure gradient as storms approached the region, increasing winds.
And then, as storms pulled away, they often strengthened over the Gulf of Maine or Nova Scotia, decreasing pressure in the storm system, all while fair weather pressure, or high pressure, funneling behind the departing storm kept a strong pressure gradient in place.
What does this mean? Windy conditions lasted longer than normal, increasing our wind gust intensity and timeframe.
Take a look at our last storm system, below. You can see the parallel pressure bars close together around the low. The closer the lines, the steeper the pressure gradient is and the winder it gets, with high pressure flowing quickly down a steep atmospheric slide to fill that void of low pressure of the departing storm. This was a common occurrence throughout the year.
It looks like our weather pattern will continue to remain active through the rest of November and likely into the last month of the year, meaning there’s a great chance that 2025 ends up as the windiest Boston has ever seen, according to the record books.
Sign up here for our daily Globe Weather Forecast that will arrive straight into your inbox bright and early each weekday morning.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.
About the Author
