The gusty winds on Christmas Day that were fierce enough to put two Denver suburbs into the 2016 record book, according to CoreLogic’s .
Among cities with a population of 100,000 or more, Arvada ranked sixth for wind, with a holiday gust of 87 mph. Westminster came in eighth with a recorded gust of 85 mph. Both measurements occurred on Dec. 25.
The strongest winds recorded last year resulted from Hurricane Matthew, which produced a 101-mph ground-level gust at the Kennedy Space Center. As the storm moved up the Atlantic Coast on Oct. 6 and 7, it produced speeds above 86 mph as it blew through a series of lightly populated small towns and cities.
Metro areas with the most high-speed wind events last year included Nashville, Tenn.; Reno, Nev.; and Jackson, Miss.
Boulder, which claimed the No. 2 spot for the highest wind speed in a populated area in 2015, and the 10th spot for most high-speed wind events, didn’t show up in the 2016 rankings, according to CoreLogic.
Wind damage accounts for about a quarter of insurance claims. CoreLogic has a proprietary system to measure wind speeds at the neighborhood level, which it provides to insurers.
