It is not often that Rochester experiences wind speeds over 70 mph, but that was the case this past Tuesday evening. Officially the airport measured a peak wind speed of 72 mph. This was the highest wind gust in Rochester since January 9th, 2008 when the airport measured a speed of 75 mph. When you look back through the record books the highest speed ever recorded by the National Weather Service since 1949 was from the Great Labor Day Storm which produced a peak wind speed of 89 mph. However, some folks may remember the wind storm of 1973. This storm downed trees across the area and flipped small planes at the airport. For some reason this was not recorded by the National Weather Service, but unofficially the two controllers at the Rochester Airport tower recorded a peak wind gust of 115 mph on June 6th, 1973.