The Atlantic

Why Your Metro Commute Is So Insanely Windy

Unpredictable and sometimes alarming, the weirdly powerful winds in metro stations might be explained by some basic rules of physics.
Source: Mark E. Gibson / Getty

The intense and mysterious winds of the Washington, D.C., metro system seem to come out of nowhere. They’re not particularly bad when standing on the train platform, as one might expect; in fact, it’s the level between the train platform and the street where the infuriatingly powerful gusts are the strongest. Every now and then, my fellow commuters and I will be caught holding down our clothes and gripping our reading material, while our hair slaps us in the face. Occasionally, a small child is knocked over. But it’s impossible to predict when the winds will strike. One morning

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