How high would wind speeds have to be to blow a 160-pound human being away?

75 mph should be fine for you to walk around in. But do mind the cat.

Keep your cell-phone handy, just in case. That might be all the added weight you need for the extra ballast to keep you from lifting off.

Seriously, with all the debris (branches, stones, grit) flying around would make it pretty nasty. If you're insanely curious, I'd try it but wear safety goggles. You would have to walk in a crouch, probably.

beaufortscale

Rap

Just fill your pockets with a few of your favorite language prescriptions, Kicky. A load of crap like that will keep you anchored in a F5 Tornado.

look up SAFFIR SIMPSON HURRICANE WIND SCALE. (I dont do your homwork). Then, after reading about wjat will be flying about in a tropical storm (I dont believe itll be you unless you get in between some buildings vortex then yer fucked )
In case yer fucked make sure you fill out one of Fatty Gov Christies cards with your name SS number and next of kin. Then just stick it in your shoe. Itll make our job of identifying you that much easier.

Im amazed that you NEw Yorkers are even paying attentionto anybody about the storm.
WAITLL you run out of bagels and toilet paper when yer power grid goes down like PAris Hilton.

Dem be fightin' words!!

Take out your slide rule and figure it out. Remember it will also vary according to which street you are on and if you're approaching a perpendicular or trapezoidal structure and whether it's near a scaffolding built after 1934.

But why worry, it'll be a great chance for all of us to air out our armpits.

I generally don't pay much attention to hurricanes. If the power goes out, I'll notice. And kvetch about.

I got toilet paper. No bagels, but I do have lox. Also Pepsi and Oreos. I'm set for anything.

Edit: I just looked out the window. A little rain. No wind to speak of--yet.

SURE, NOW!?!

Kiddo, I'm not sure about anything. Only going by what's happened in the past, which in the case of hurricanes in NYC, not much. The coastal areas are another story.

I'm sure about the wind--at the moment. There are trees across the street. None of the branches are moving.

If the power goes out, I'll be very surprised and even more pissed.

I hope I'm right for me and a lot of other people.

BTW, Kicky. When I was in high school, we were evacuated from school because of a hurricane. I waited too long to get moving. As I was walking home, a gust of wind came along and nearly knocked me down. A little later, I was hanging onto a lamp post to keep from being blown away. I was much lighter then--maybe 115 pounds.

I made it home safely.

Windy now.

I was just reading about staying away from windows ten stories and above. Or maybe it was above ten stories. Anyway, wind speed increased with height..

Interesting, and heartening - from a Washington Post blog on the hurricane progressing,

05:00 p.m. Pets in the storm

To accommodate man’s best friend in the storm, cities and states have opened cabs and shelters to pets. All evacuation centers in New York and New Jersey are required to take animals, as are all taxi cabs.

No wind here so far in Queens. No noticeable wind that is.

A tornado alert!! What the hell is happening to this planet?

An oithquake and now a tornado (alert). That doesn't happen here.

I'm worried about the storm surge. Electricity in Manhattan and some other boroughs is underground. Flooding could be a problem.

Farmerman said it best. 75 mph winds ain't gonna pick you up and cary you away. But be careful about what else that wind might've picked up and is blowing right at you -- empty garbage can, broken bottle, etc. etc. Walking in the streets of NYC can be dangerous even in calm weather.

I believe it was during the onslaught of Hurricane Agnes some years back that a Boston University student was killed by being blown off the roof where he'd gone with some other drunken friends to "see the storm up close." Stay off roofs.

Hey, Andy. You talking to me? Or is this just a general statement?

I'm gonna assume general. And good advice it is to those who might be inclined to take a stroll during a hurricane or to get bombed and go up an a roof. Hey, you guys. Don't do that.

No buses. No subways. Few cars. No commercial planes.It sounds the way things sounded in the aftermath of 9/11. One big difference. No war planes flying overhead.

Too quiet for NYC.

re Andrei: yeah, that sounds like BU, right enough.

re Roberta: Oreos and lox? Gah! Even New Yorkers can't like that combination--better to just go out in the storm and get blown away than eat that.

Including me. Why in the world would I eat Oreos and lox together? Blech. Oreos go with milk.

Lox goes with a buncha stuff that doesn't include sandwich cookies.

And it would take more than this storm to blow me away these days.

What's BU?