Globally, Chicago Ranks As One Of The Windiest

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Astute scholars of Chicago lore will tell you that the city's Windy City moniker has nothing to do with actual wind.

However, it actually is really windy around here, compared with the rest of the planet.

A company called Vaisala, which provides high-tech weather monitoring equipment and renewable energy assessments, plotted wind data worldwide.

While it's not the windiest, Chicago ranks up there globally, with mean wind speeds between 15 and 20 miles per hour.

The 2011 data comes from wind speeds taken at 80 meters, which is the standard height of wind turbines used to generate alternative energy.

(Click on the images to enlarge)

According to the Illinois Climatologist Office, the average wind speed for the entire state is 7.4 miles per hour, with March (9.1 mph) and April (9.2 mph) being the windiest months on average. For the Chicago area, it's 10 mph. Those measures are taken at 10 meters.

There aren't many highly populated land areas in the United States windier than Chicago according to this analysis by Stanford University.