topo plays a big role
Local topography plays a role in strengthening the wind. In cities, that's buildings. If you walk between buildings on a windy day in downtown Boston, you'll get winds a lot stronger than what Logan Airport is having because moving air (and water) speed up when they squeeze through tight spaces, like when you put your thumb over the end of the garden hose (wouldn't it be nice if traffic did the same?)
Around here we have mountain ranges that funnel moving air. When Tropical Storm Floyd came up the coast in 1999, I was in Portsmouth where nothing much was happening and came up to the lake where hundreds of trees were falling - ended up having to spend the night elsewhere because the road was blocked by trees. Even Rt. 25 was blocked by trees at one point. Meanwhile, Portsmouth was having just a classic wind-driven rainstorm.
I seem to remember that Belknap County needed disaster aid to remove the 100's of fallen trees and restore power, while the seacoast fared much better.
Why the difference? Floyd's winds hit our local mountains at just the right angle so they got funneled, which strengthened them and focused them on a very localized area, well away from the Tropical Storm's path.
And today it is happening again... as I write this we're gusting to 18 mph on Black Cat, from the SE... meanwhile all the NWS sites (AND the Summit of Mount Washington!) are reporting generally 2-5 mph from the east or southeast. Our winds are actually a lot stronger than Mount Washington's right now.
The lake, which is elongated from NW to SE and bordered by mountains to the south and to the north, is acting like a runway and a funnel for the wind.
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