Travelers to Chicago may experience the wind gusts that come off Lake Michigan, get tossed around a bit and think, “So this is why it’s called the Windy City.” The nickname, which dates back to the late 1870s, is deceiving: Chicago is literally a windy city, but that’s not what the phrase was intended to reference. 
 
 Talk to different people and you’ll get different answers, but most fingers point to Charles A. Dana, once the editor of the New York Sun—a paper published between 1833 and 1950—who wrote an editorial that said Chicago was windy because of its full-of-hot-air politicians. The Chicago Tribune even published a column in 2004, which they hold as the “definitive article on the term,” giving Dana credit. During the time of Dana’s proclamation, Chicago and New York were competing to host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Tribune’s column writes that the famous phrase comes from when Dana advocated against the “nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not hold a world’s fair even if they won it.” 
 
 The problem with using Dana as a source is that no one has ever been able to find this legendary editorial. Not even a date of publication. 
 
 According to Barry Popik, a New York City parking-ticket judge by day and a word sleuth by night, he has found the true origins of the phrase. He came across an entry in a May 9, 1876 Cincinnati Enquirer article with the headline, “THAT WINDY CITY. Some of the Freaks of the Last Chicago Tornado.” Popik said the headline used innuendo to comment on the speakers who were full of wind and that there was a windstorm. This is the earliest found reference of Chicago being called the Windy City, predating Dana’s use of the phrase by a little more than a decade. 
 
 Still, both the Tribune and the Chicago Public Library stand by the fact that Dana popularized the term, even if he didn’t coin it. 

 CLOSE While Chicago has plenty of wind blowing through its streets, the city's nickname as nothing to do with the weather. A new report names Jackson Mississippi has the nation's windiest city. USA TODAY 
 
 As dusk falls in northeast Jackson, Miss., Anna Marie Payne holds her 7-year-old son Bronson Payne up so he can get a better view of the blocked street following Friday afternoon's powerful storms and possible tornadoes that hit the state, April 4, 2008. (Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP) 
 
 Despite its nickname, Chicago isn't even in the top 10 of the windiest U.S. cities, according to a new analysis of recent weather data from CoreLogic, a research and consulting firm. 
 
 Jackson, Miss., is the windiest city in the nation, followed by Springfield, Mo., Boston, Cambridge, Mass., and Shreveport, La., according to CoreLogic. 
 
 The ranking calculates the total force caused by all severe wind gusts of 60 mph or more for every wind event dating back to 2006 in 293 U.S. cities that have populations of 100,000 or more. 
 
 "When looking at various natural hazards and the risk they pose, wind doesn't get as much attention as hurricanes, floods or wildfires, which can cause widespread devastation in just a single event," Lindene Patton, global head of hazard product development for CoreLogic, said in a statement. 
 
 "However, wind-related damage is a serious and ongoing risk with about a third of all claims related to wind and hail," she said. "Reviewing wind activity over multiple years helps identify trends and provide further scientific data to inform insurance coverage which, in turn, better protects homeowners." 
 
 This data is different than that generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which says that the windiest city is Dodge City, Kan., based on average wind speed, not which cities have the highest wind gusts. 
 
 NOAA declined to comment on CoreLogic's methodology in gathering its wind speed data. 
 
 Unlike traditional wind records, which rely on airport-based and private weather observation stations that record data only at one location, CoreLogic captured wind data at a more property-specific level, the company said. The data is localized and geography-specific so that even cities that are close together, such as Boston and Cambridge, can be measured independently. 
 
 For the first half of 2015, Reno recorded the highest wind speed at 119 mph and Jackson, Miss., recorded the most wind events at 14, CoreLogic said. 
 
 As for Chicago, it's actually the 50th windiest city in the U.S., according to CoreLogic's data. 
 
 (Addendum: As several astute USA TODAY readers have pointed out, Chicago's nickname of the "Windy City" may not be due to its meteorological conditions, but rather the "hot air" from its politicians in the 1800s. The Chicago Tribune's "On Language" columnist Nathan Bierma wrote the definitive article in 2004 that explains the phrase origins. In it, though, he says the Windy City origin story (from a New York Sun editorial of the hot air from its politicians) may also be a myth, since the quote is nowhere to be found, and no one can prove it was ever written.) 
 
 The top 10 windiest cities in the U.S. (Photo: CoreLogic) 
 
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– Hold on to your hats, folks, before reading this one, especially if you live in a city that qualifies as among America's windiest. USA Today shares CoreLogic's rankings of 293 US cities by total force of severe wind gusts since 2006. It turns out the Windy City ranks as the 50th windiest city in the US (not that weather is what Chicago's nickname really references). The top 5: Jackson, Miss.: 153 wind events, maximum wind speed 99mph Springfield, Mo.: 128 wind events, maximum wind speed 97mph Boston, Mass.: 121 wind events, maximum wind speed 83mph Cambridge, Mass.: 116 wind events, maximum wind speed 83mph Shreveport, La.: 108 wind events, maximum wind speed 77mph As USA Today points out, CoreLogic's rankings differ from NOAA's rankings, which look at average wind speed instead of highest wind gusts. According to NOAA's rankings, Dodge City, Kan., is the windiest city in the nation. Click for CoreLogic's top 10.