Why is the wind so strong when the Isobars are so far apart.?

Question

Why is the wind so strong when the Isobars are so far apart.?

Answer 1

The two answers already given are good possibilities.  I would like to add one more.  This is when the surface pressure gradient is weak, but there is higher winds aloft.  During the warm season, daytime heating can cause the lower part of the atmosphere to mixed upwards.  This can cause the higher speed winds aloft to mixed toward the surface.  Sometimes a mid level jet develops over an area where there is a strong inversion in place during the early morning hours.  With the heating of the day, the inversion breaks and suddenly you will have strong gusty winds from above moving to near the ground level.  In this case, this  type of an event may not be limited to the local levels like the good answers already given to you above.  This mixing can occur over a large area so this can by a larger scale synoptic event.   It is not uncommon to have winds at 5000 to 7000 above ground level to mix all the way to the surface in the warm season.  These type of winds tend to gusty and not sustained when the surface gradient is week.  One exception is when you live by a mountain range and the strong winds aloft is caused by a barrier jet.  In any case, all the answers given are reminders that it is not always the surface pressure gradient that you must look at in order to forecast breezy to windy conditions.

Answer 2

Wind is strong when pressure changes quickly in a short amount of distance, as air moves from high to low pressure. So, when isobars are close together, wind speed is higher. When they're far apart, wind speed is lower. There is an exception: rain/thunder storms often produce a little wind. Are you near a storm?

Answer 3

You could be experiencing a local enhancement of the pressure gradient, such as from thunderstorm outflow winds, which can flow far from the parent storm (indeed, the storm may have already dissipated).  Isobars generally are mapped on what is known as synoptic scale weather.  There is a smaller scale that is used, known as mesoscale, where local extremes can and do occur.  That may be why you see this apparent inconsistency.