Big tree branches swaying in the wind. Trash bins toppling over. Whirlwinds of leaves and pollen blowing through the air.
All of these are common occurrences in New Jersey, especially from the late fall through the early spring. But are windy days in the Garden State becoming more frequent than in the past?
An NJ Advance Media analysis of 20 years of wind data from the National Weather Service has found a sharp rise in the number of windy days last year.
There was an even bigger increase during the latest “wind season” — which generally runs during the coolest weather months, from November through April.
NJ Advance Media analyzed the average daily wind speeds, along with the maximum daily wind gusts at the weather service’s three main weather reporting stations in New Jersey — Newark Liberty International Airport in North Jersey, Trenton Mercer Airport in Central Jersey and Atlantic City International Airport in South Jersey.
We also checked the number of wind advisories and high wind warnings issued by the federal weather agency. Those are activated only on extremely windy days when damaging gusts are looming.
Our key findings were mostly consistent with a recent weather service analysis of wind stats in Philadelphia.
The past season was more windy than usual based on daily averages — and far more windy than usual based on the number of days with gusts of 30 mph or stronger.
“Philadelphia experienced the most number of days with average wind speed at or above 15 mph since the 2006-2007 cool season,” the weather service said.
Its analysis found that “73 days, or 40% of all days from November through April, had a maximum wind gust of 30 mph or greater, which was the most ever on record.”
Some areas of New Jersey, including Newark and Atlantic City, saw a slight uptick in windy days from the late autumn through the early spring, according to wind data from the National Weather Service and Iowa State University.Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Key findings in New Jersey
You’ll notice the wind when it hits 15 mph.
The leaves on your backyard trees will rustle, and forget about putting up your patio umbrella. But it won’t be strong enough to blow away your garbage can just yet.
During the past 20 wind seasons, the average number of days each season in which the daily wind speed averaged out to 15 mph or higher was 26 in Newark, 19 in Atlantic City and 5 in Trenton. (The weather service considers sustained winds of 15 to 25 mph to be “breezy.”)
This most recent wind season, New Jersey saw more of those days when the wind is high enough to ruin your ponytail but not high enough to ruin your plants.
During the latest wind season from November to April, the number of days with the daily wind speed averaging 15 mph or higher was 29 in Newark and 23 in Atlantic City. Trenton was a bit of an outlier, coming in below average, with only two days above 15 mph.
As high as the numbers were in Newark and Atlantic City, they were not close to matching the largest number of days with the daily wind speed averaging 15 mph or higher: 35 in Newark (2006-2007) and 26 in Atlantic City (2005-2006).
But if you’ve pegged this most recent year as really windy, it’s likely because of the gusts.
At bursts of 30 mph or higher, you’ll feel resistance as you walk and your recycling might end up in your neighbor’s front yard.
And New Jersey saw a lot of those days in recent months.
Can’t see the chart? Click here.
Stats from the past 20 wind seasons show the average number of days each season in which maximum wind gusts were blowing at 30 mph or stronger were 74 in Newark, 73 in Atlantic City and 50 in Trenton.
All three airports blew past those averages this season, recording their highest number of gusty days in at least 20 years.
Newark saw 109 gusty days, the highest of any site in New Jersey. To put it another way, nearly two-thirds of all days in that timespan were gusty.
Atlantic City and Trenton were slightly less gusty, but the wind still packed a punch.
Half of the days in Atlantic City were gusty, while there were 72 gusty days in Trenton, or about 40% of all days.
Many areas of New Jersey saw a big uptick in the number of windy days from the late autumn of 2024 through the early spring of 2025, according to wind gust data from the National Weather Service and Iowa State University.Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
N.J. wind alerts
During the past 20 years, the National Weather Service has issued an average of 20 wind advisories and four high wind warnings in New Jersey each calendar year.
So far this year, through May 22, the state has seen 12 wind advisories and one high wind warning. While the number of advisories is running well above the yearly average, that’s not too unusual.
On two occasions — in 2006 and 2012 — New Jersey had as many as 29 wind advisories issued. And one year, in 2020, the state had 31.
New Jersey has seen as many as 10 high wind warnings issued, in 2006.
Wind advisories are typically issued in our region when sustained winds — not related to thunderstorms — are expected to be blowing 31 to 39 mph for at least one hour or wind gusts are as strong as 46 to 57 mph for any duration.
High wind warnings are prompted by sustained winds of 40 mph or higher for at least an hour or wind gusts of 58 mph or stronger for any duration.
Gusts that high can topple trees and power lines, blow shingles off houses or cause other types of structural damage to buildings.
Can’t see the chart? Click here.
Reasons for more windy days
It’s tough to pinpoint the precise cause, said Michael Lee, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s main forecast office in New Jersey.
“One possibility could just be that we had more storm systems nearby, and anytime you have storm systems nearby, instead of just high pressure, you’re gonna get a little more wind and such,” Lee said.
“It really could be just as simple as luck of the draw, and we were just in a more active weather pattern this past season, and therefore we get windier days,” he added.
Lee said New Jersey may have had fewer days this past fall, winter and early spring with areas of high pressure circulating right over the state.
“When high pressure is overhead and it’s in control, typically we have less windy days,” Lee said. “But if there’s a low pressure system or storm system that’s nearby or overhead, then we get windier days.”
“Sometimes we kind of get in between a low pressure system and a high pressure system, and those are particularly windy days as well,” he said.
Possible ties to La Niña
New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson said he hasn’t done an in-depth analysis of wind speeds that have been clocked at the 68 weather reporting stations across the state that are part of the Rutgers NJ Weather Network, which his office oversees.
However, he has noticed many days with 40 mph gusts in recent months.
“While not certain, this may have been due to the modest La Niña (a natural climate pattern caused by cooler than normal sea surface temperatures) in the tropical Pacific and the associated pressure patterns and storm track across eastern North America,” Robinson said. “In this case, New Jersey has fewer coastal storms than in neutral or El Niño situations.”
Robinson said the weather pattern this past winter “brought storms either moving to our northwest, up through the eastern lakes, with high pressure to the south of the path. Or moved storms on a west-to-east path to our south, with high pressure to our north. In other words, we were ‘caught’ between high and low pressure, resulting in a pressure gradient strong enough to generate rather frequent windy days across New Jersey.”
Is the recent uptick in windy days part of a long-term trend in the Garden State?
Robinson says it’s something that’s difficult to quantify because of the limited statewide data and some changes in technology.
He noted that some of the NJ Weather Network’s weather stations have been around for decades, while others were launched in recent years.
That could limit the ability to do long-term research at multiple sites.
Also, some wind sensors used by Rutgers and the National Weather Service are located in more open areas than others.
Some are closer to the Atlantic and could be influenced by strong winds blowing in from the ocean, compared to sensors that are much farther inland.
And newer sensors, which continually monitor wind speeds, directions and gusts, were introduced in the 1990s, Robinson said. So it might not be a fair comparison between older data and newer data.
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Stories by Len Melisurgo
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.
Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch.