Language expert Barry Popick says on his web site that Chicago was called a "windy city" because of the wind that blows off of Lake Michigan.
VOA: special.2010.01.10
The industry's success in Texas (where my company is based, and which is the nation's largest and cheapest producer of wind power) suggests that wind farms do make sense in relatively windy areas where electricity shortages occur.
Growing up in Texas, Knost is not unfamiliar with windy conditions and he confesses that he would not be unduly fazed by the wind "getting up to 20 or 30 mile an hour this weekend".