Contrary to popular belief, Chicago is not the windiest city in the United States. In fact, with an average annual wind speed of 9.9 mph, it ranks fairly average when compared to other metropolises like New York City (12.2 mph) and Boston (11.6 mph). Although visitors may occasionally experience strong gusts of winds from Lake Michigan, the nickname actually refers to a history of politics and dates back to the late 19th century.
According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “windy” is used in metaphorical context to describe Chicago’s politicians who became famous for their boastful and talkative nature. The central location of the city also made it the ideal host site for political conventions, which helped to establish Chicago’s reputation with "long-winded" politicians.
Today, most sources agree that Charles A. Dana, once an editor of the New York Sun, popularized the nickname in an editorial published in light of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. At the time, New York was competing with Chicago to host the event in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the New World. The animosity between the cities became so intense that Dana urged New Yorkers to ignore the “nonsensical claims of that windy city,” stating that “its people could not hold a world’s fair even if they won it.”
Photo via Boston Public Library (CC BY 2.0)
Although Dana didn’t exactly coin the nickname (a Cincinnati Enquirer article was headlined with “THAT WINDY CITY a decade prior), both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Public Library credit the editor with its widespread circulation. Unfortunately, the editorial itself has never been found.
