High winds aren’t too common in the North Carolina Piedmont. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (part of the U.S. Department of Energy) ranks the wind resource here as poor, the lowest ranking. Occasional tornadoes and hurricanes bring destructive winds, but generally the Piedmont is calm. The coast and mountaintops are much windier, with a few locations classified as outstanding wind resources.

The strong winds on the North Carolina coast attract hang-gliders, kite fliers and kite boarders (whose kite/surfboard hybrids use wind to ride the waves). They are following in impressive footsteps. Over one hundred years ago a pair of brothers came to Kitty Hawk in search of wind. They needed it to test their latest invention: the Wright Flyer, which achieved the first successful powered flight.

Plants and animals need wind as much as people do. Raptors soar on rising air, and plants from dandelions to maple trees use the wind to disperse their seeds. Have you noticed yellow dust coating nearly everything in the spring? That’s pine pollen that trees have released to be carried by the wind.

Photo: A turkey vulture rides the warm October breezes in Rougemont, NC. Photo by Linda Huff.