3 days ago
- Climate
- San Francisco Chronicle
This spot in California is so windy, locals call it a ‘little hurricane' zone
California is a state defined by wildly diverse topography; from the tall peaks of the Sierra Nevada, to the lush lowlands of the Central Valley and the rugged cliffs lining more than 800 miles of coastline.
But when it comes to wind, the invisible force that shapes landscapes and fuels wildfires, one spot in the state consistently stands above the rest. A Chronicle analysis of three decades of wind gusts shows the state's windiest spot isn't a mountain peak, a high desert bluff, or even Point Reyes, which once reportedly logged a gust of 133 mph. It's Cape Mendocino — a remote coastal headland — which juts out into the Pacific Ocean just south of Eureka and marks the westernmost point in California.
Cape Mendocino is a part of California's Lost Coast, a rugged, roadless stretch well-known by backpackers, where Highway 1 detours inland to avoid the steep terrain. Just south of Eureka, the cape is surrounded by steep cliffs, redwood groves and isolated communities like Petrolia and Shelter Cove.
'Yeah, it doesn't surprise me at all,' said Nick Pape, the fire chief in Shelter Cove, a small community tucked just southeast of the cape, of the region's windiest designation. 'We get the full brunt of the wind out here. There's no protection. It just comes screaming off the ocean and hits us head on.'
A January 2023 storm stands out in Pape's memory.
'I couldn't even open the door of my duty truck, the wind was that strong,' he said. 'We had to open an emergency shelter and evacuate residents after trees came down on homes. That one (storm) came in from the south and we're totally exposed from that direction.'
The Channel Islands, located off the Southern California coast, ranked at the state's second windiest area; gusts there are similarly amplified by steep coastal terrain and open ocean exposure. Further inland, exposed ridgelines near Lake Oroville, the high-country terrain of the Emigrant Wilderness and mountain passes around Kingvale and El Dorado National Forest all consistently experience intense gusts, each shaped by California's unique and varied landscape.
The cape's fierce winds are driven by two seasonal patterns. The strongest and most persistent gusts occur in spring and summer, when sharp temperature contrasts form between California's hot interior and the cold Pacific Ocean.
In late spring, inland temperatures can climb toward 100 degrees, while Cape Mendocino, along the coast, hovers in the upper 40s. That thermal divide creates a steep pressure gradient that fuels relentless north and northwest winds. These winds, guided by the North Pacific High, also help generate the dense marine layer and summer fog familiar to Bay Area residents.
'Cape Mendocino sticks out over the coastal waters, creating a convergence between the land and the faster-moving air offshore,' said Doug Boushey, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Eureka. 'When this air encounters the steep coastal terrain, it's forced to accelerate because it has nowhere else to go, it can't move inland easily, and it can't rise upwards due to a persistent marine layer inversion acting as a cap. That's why the winds become so consistently strong there.'
Those spring and summer winds can be especially punishing for mariners, many of whom travel south along the coast after the winter storm season. Cape Mendocino's exposure makes it one of the hardest passages for seafarers on the Pacific coast.
'Every year, mariners come to our office asking, 'When can I get around the Cape?'' Boushey said. 'Sometimes we have to tell them it might be two weeks or more. There is just no opening. People unfamiliar with the area will try to round the Cape and just get beat up. They have to pull into Humboldt Bay and wait until the winds let up enough to safely pass.'
In winter, the pattern shifts. Instead of pressure-driven north winds, powerful low-pressure systems sweep in from the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, triggering brief but intense southerly gusts. These storms can deliver serious wind impacts, but they are shorter-lived and less consistent than the prolonged blows of spring and early summer.
The Chronicle's analysis relied on hourly wind gust data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, known as reanalysis data, which blends direct observations with weather modeling. We calculated the strongest gust recorded each day and averaged those over 30 years, from 1991 to 2024, to provide a comprehensive picture of wind behavior statewide, pinpointing the Cape Mendocino area as the consistently windiest place in California.
There are limitations, however. The dataset's resolution is relatively coarse, which means it may not fully capture the nuanced influence of California's complex terrain. It also doesn't include data from newer ground-based weather stations installed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., potentially missing localized wind extremes.
Some individual locations have recorded stronger isolated wind gusts. California's highest-ever recorded gust, a remarkable 199 mph, occurred at the Alpine Meadows ski resort in the Lake Tahoe area in February of 2017. But this extreme reading reflects a single event.
Pape, of the Shelter Cove Fire Department, confirmed it gets seriously windy at Cape Mendocino. 'We've had what folks around here call little hurricanes. Trees falling into power lines, roofs torn off, people getting evacuated,' he said. 'It's not every week, but when it hits, you remember.'
Cape Mendocino residents and local officials have been grappling with the reality of relentless gusts. In Shelter Cove, that means more frequent wind‑related damage and disruptions, forcing the community to adapt to increasingly severe conditions.
'We're starting to see a real public safety issue with it,' Pape said. 'It definitely keeps us busy, especially during the winter months.'
