Hannah Chin

Namely, the wind.

Which really bothers Barry because he likes to bike.

And, well, wind isn't great for bikers.

I love that our listeners make graphs for their questions.

So this is Scott Gunter.

He's an assistant professor at the University of Louisville with a special focus on extreme weather.

And he was excited to see this graph because low-speed winds aren't really something a lot of scientists pay attention to.

Researchers like Scott are more worried about severe winds, which the National Weather Service defines as winds above 58 miles per hour.

They're the kind of winds that can cause damage.

But here's the thing.

We all grapple with low-speed winds in our daily lives.

To Barry's point, they can be totally disruptive to us as humans, even if they're not turning into high-speed tornado winds or toppling buildings.

And I'm Hannah Shin.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Happy spring, short wavers.

I'm producer Hannah Chin, and my NatureQuest buddy Emily Kwong is also here.

Hi, Hannah.

With a story about an age-old question for homeowners.

Namely, should I cut down that big tree in my front yard?

Yeah, to chainsaw.