The high winds Monday and Tuesday caused spots of damage all around the region. Trees were toppled. Shingles were blown away. Semi-trucks were blown off the roads.
The wind was caused by a very strong low-pressure system and the right combination of cold and dry air just above the surface layer of the air so that very strong turbulence brought a lot of wind energy from many hundreds of feet in the air down to the ground.
People always want to know what the wind gust was that caused the damage at their location. But this is usually not a knowable fact. The wind can be estimated from the type of damage. But the only measured wind speeds are where the wind instruments are located, which is usually not where the actual damage is. They are called straight-line winds to differentiate them from tornadoes. But damaging winds are very turbulent, and rarely straight.
