There’s been an unusual amount of wind the past several weeks, darn gusty too. High winds have kept fishermen off the water, prevented campers from thoroughly enjoying their outings and made life miserable for golfers, runners and bicyclists. Excess wind has helped dry out soil too.

North Dakota is known as a windy state, but nothing like what has been experienced this deep into the calendar. Lately, we’ve seen everything from swirling dust storms to thunderstorms packing high winds. Even though changes in weather occur, the constant has been the wind. It just never seems to go away for more than a few hours at a time.

“Were stuck in a weather patterns where the pressure gradient is stronger than typical,” said Chauncy Schultz, National Weather Service meteorologist in Bismarck. “A lot has to do with the jet stream [being] stronger and longer into the year than usual.”

It’s a catch 22 of sorts. High winds dry out soil and dry conditions help produce wind. As Schultz explains it, “A lot of days when it’s dry heat up nicely and have stronger winds, say 3-5,000 feet above ground, and are in a momentum transfer due to the dryness.”

There are multiple factors that can lead to windy conditions, but essentially, says Schultz, it is the weather between systems of highs and lows that is “sort of tied to the stronger jet stream aloft. The wind has been reflecting that.”

Today was forecast to be one with light winds. Enjoy it while you can. The remainder of the week is expected to be plagued with high winds and even stronger gusts. Wednesday’s wind is forecast to kick up to 36 miles per hour, Thursday up to 25 mph, Friday 23 and Saturday 22.

“It certainly looks like the windy pattern will continue. Maybe next week there will be some change but I wouldn’t bet on it just yet,” Schultz said. “It may take some time. We don’t expect this much wind in June but we’ve sure been stuck in it.”

Statistics make a point. Minot’s average wind speed in June 2015 was 8.8 mph. Last year in June, Minot had average winds of 10.7 mph. So far this June, the Minot average has been 11.9 mph. That’s a significant increase, and not just by meteorological standards.

What’s more, the number seems destined to climb higher in the next several days. Windy days create more than a cosmetic difference, it can have an adverse effect on growers.

“It really can. It can dry things out,” said Allen Schlag, Bismarck NWS hydrologist. “If wind mixes that surface air out and replaces it with much lower humidity, it creates more evaporative demand on that surface.”

It has not been uncommon over the last several weeks for the first hour of two of daylight to be reasonably free of wicked wind, but then the gusts begin to kick in and continue until almost dark, sometimes lasting through the nighttime hours.

What next week will bring in terms of wind remains uncertain. Unlike temperatures and the threat of rain, wind is often difficult to reliably forecast more than 24-48 hours in advance. However, even if this month finishes out without a continuation of a very windy pattern, it still is destined to become one of the windiest months in recent history.