Today is Big Wind Day, an April 12 holiday. It’s the kind of day that can blow you away. We all get those occasional windy days when you need to put rocks in your pockets before going outside, so you don’t blow away. Even without a hurricane or a tornado, it can get pretty windy anywhere on the planet. Windstorms display the awesome power of nature. They can be deadly, dangerous, and damaging. It can leave you without power.

On the other side of the coin, the wind can be our friend. It helps to cool us on a hot day. Sailors have used its power for thousands of years. Christopher Columbus would never have landed in America, without wind in his sails. Windmills increasingly dot the landscape all over the world. Electric turbines on them provide increasing amounts of clean electricity, to an energy-hungry world.  

For all the good and the bad that wind does for and to us, it’s only fitting, that we show our respect for it, by giving the wind its own, very special day.  

Big Wind Day commemorates the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet. Can you guess where?  No, it wasn’t in the middle of a hurricane or a tornado.

On April 12, 1934, the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, recorded the highest surface wind ever measured, anywhere on earth. This big blow was officially recorded at 231 miles per hour. Imagine the difficulties of even making a recording under those conditions back then!

Will this record ever be broken? Perhaps, but until then, enjoy Big Wind Day. 

Not the “Big Wind” you expected– – When talking to the family about documenting Big Wind Day, family members teased “quick everyone, get out of the room!”