Where is the windiest place on earth?

The Guinness Book of World Records and National Geographic Atlas have both listed Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica as the windiest place on the planet. Katabatic winds in Commonwealth Bay are recorded at over 150 mph on a regular basis, and the average annual wind speed is 50 mph.

In fact, Antarctica holds the record among continents for sustained wind speeds which can reach 200 mph.

Antarctica's temperature patterns are part of the reason for such powerful winds. On warmer continents, air temperature usually decreases as distance above land increases; in other words, the higher you get, the colder the air. Antarctica's interior region is the high Polar Plateau, an area covered with a thick ice sheet. This massive ice sheet cools the air above it; as a result, all the air above the Polar Plateau is very cold. That means that air temperature rises (instead of decreasing) with distance above land. This is called a temperature inversion, because it is the inverse, or opposite, of more common temperature patterns on warmer continents.

Cold air is more dense than warm air; that's why warm air rises and cold air sinks! The Polar Plateau is covered with so much ice that it is always cold; this means that it is always cooling the air above it. As a result, a mass of very cold, dense air sits on top of the Polar Plateau. This cold, dense air wants to sink, so it flows down from the high continental interior toward the lower coast, just as a stream flows down a mountain.