MLB research
The windiest MLB stadiums, ranked — and where the wind actually matters
Two different questions hide inside “windiest ballpark”: where does the wind blow hardest, and where does it change the game most? We answered both from six seasons of game-time wind at every outdoor park.
Quick answer
Windiest park
Oracle Park
14.1 mph average at game time · 82% of games at 10+ mph
Where wind moves scoring most
Wrigley Field
+4.04 runs, wind out vs in (t = 6.62)
They are not the same park, and that is the main lesson: raw wind speed tells you little. Direction, and whether a park's wind ever flips, decide whether it shows up on the scoreboard.
Ranking 1: average wind at game time
| # | Park | Avg mph | 10+ mph | Out / in / other | Usual | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oracle Park | 14.1 | 82% | 96% / 0% / 4% | Out | 474 |
| 2 | Wrigley Field | 10.5 | 48% | 22% / 37% / 41% | Across / light | 475 |
| 3 | Guaranteed Rate Field | 9.8 | 43% | 11% / 19% / 70% | Across / light | 472 |
| 4 | Comerica Park | 9.4 | 43% | 18% / 14% / 68% | Across / light | 474 |
| 5 | American Family Field | 8.7 | 35% | 16% / 29% / 55% | Across / light | 258 |
| 6 | Progressive Field | 8.6 | 35% | 11% / 33% / 56% | Across / light | 474 |
| 7 | Oakland Coliseum | 8.5 | 29% | 75% / 0% / 24% | Out | 323 |
| 8 | Petco Park | 8.5 | 28% | 12% / 1% / 87% | Across / light | 472 |
| 9 | Yankee Stadium | 8.3 | 30% | 20% / 12% / 68% | Across / light | 473 |
| 10 | Fenway Park | 8.2 | 28% | 29% / 16% / 55% | Across / light | 474 |
| 11 | Citi Field | 8.2 | 29% | 35% / 8% / 56% | Across / light | 474 |
| 12 | Citizens Bank Park | 7.9 | 27% | 33% / 11% / 56% | Across / light | 472 |
| 13 | Kauffman Stadium | 7.7 | 25% | 20% / 15% / 65% | Across / light | 474 |
| 14 | Rogers Centre | 7.7 | 28% | 35% / 17% / 47% | Across / light | 269 |
| 15 | Target Field | 7.7 | 25% | 18% / 16% / 65% | Across / light | 476 |
| 16 | Sutter Health Park | 7.4 | 20% | 64% / 1% / 35% | Out | 144 |
| 17 | Angel Stadium | 7.3 | 8% | 84% / 0% / 16% | Out | 480 |
| 18 | Dodger Stadium | 7.3 | 10% | 82% / 0% / 18% | Out | 473 |
| 19 | Busch Stadium | 7.3 | 20% | 15% / 9% / 76% | Across / light | 474 |
| 20 | Chase Field | 7.2 | 23% | 4% / 3% / 92% | Across / light | 118 |
| 21 | Great American Ball Park | 7.2 | 20% | 25% / 9% / 66% | Across / light | 474 |
| 22 | T-Mobile Park | 6.9 | 18% | 15% / 9% / 76% | Across / light | 402 |
| 23 | Oriole Park at Camden Yards | 6.8 | 16% | 15% / 8% / 77% | Across / light | 473 |
| 24 | PNC Park | 6.7 | 16% | 29% / 9% / 62% | Across / light | 474 |
| 25 | Nationals Park | 6.6 | 17% | 19% / 10% / 70% | Across / light | 477 |
| 26 | Coors Field | 6.5 | 17% | 10% / 28% / 62% | Across / light | 471 |
| 27 | Truist Park | 6.2 | 11% | 22% / 15% / 63% | Across / light | 475 |
Open-air and roof-open games only, 2021–2026. "Out" and "in" mean wind of 5+ mph blowing toward or away from centre field, using each park's own home-plate-to-centre-field bearing. Parks with fewer than 100 outdoor games are not ranked: Minute Maid Park (11), Marlins Park (42), Globe Life Field (59).
Ranking 2: where wind actually moves scoring
Each game's runs are compared with that park's own season average, then wind-out games are compared with wind-in games. 4 of 18 parks with at least 40 games in each group show a gap that clears |t| ≥ 1.96; the rest are marked as noise.
| Park | Out / in games | Runs, out minus in | t |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrigley Field | 106 / 176 | +4.04 | 6.62 |
| Fenway Park | 137 / 76 | +2.23 | 3.75 |
| Busch Stadium | 70 / 43 | +1.47 | 2.11 |
| PNC Park | 139 / 43 | +1.41 | 2.05 |
| Yankee Stadium | 96 / 56 | +1.10 | 1.57 (noise) |
| Kauffman Stadium | 97 / 69 | +1.07 | 1.57 (noise) |
| Nationals Park | 93 / 49 | +1.00 | 1.16 (noise) |
| Guaranteed Rate Field | 52 / 90 | +0.57 | 0.67 (noise) |
| Citi Field | 167 / 40 | +0.42 | 0.48 (noise) |
| Comerica Park | 84 / 67 | +0.24 | 0.34 (noise) |
| American Family Field | 41 / 76 | +0.13 | 0.18 (noise) |
| Progressive Field | 52 / 158 | -0.13 | -0.22 (noise) |
| Rogers Centre | 95 / 47 | -0.17 | -0.25 (noise) |
| Citizens Bank Park | 156 / 51 | -0.19 | -0.22 (noise) |
| Truist Park | 104 / 73 | -0.20 | -0.29 (noise) |
| Target Field | 88 / 78 | -0.41 | -0.58 (noise) |
| Coors Field | 45 / 134 | -0.54 | -0.68 (noise) |
| Great American Ball Park | 117 / 43 | -0.72 | -0.79 (noise) |
Too few wind-out or wind-in games to measure: Chase Field, Marlins Park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Globe Life Field, Minute Maid Park, Petco Park, Oracle Park, Angel Stadium, T-Mobile Park, Sutter Health Park, Oakland Coliseum, Dodger Stadium. Full method in the ballpark wind sensitivity study.
Why wind speed alone misleads
- Direction beats speed. A 12 mph crosswind does far less to a fly ball than 12 mph straight out to centre.
- A wind that never flips can't be measured. Oracle, Dodger and Angel Stadium get wind from the same side almost every game, so there are no wind-in games to compare with — their wind is baked into the normal park factor.
- Grandstands bend the wind. Our readings are hourly weather data at each park's coordinates, not field-level sensors. At Oracle Park, reporting on MLB's in-park sensors found that wind above the roofline blows out while wind at field level can curl back toward home plate.
- Parks where wind flips are the ones that swing. Wrigley gets wind out in about a fifth of games and in in more than a third — that variety is what produces the four-run gap.
The parks worth knowing
- Oracle Park — windiest by speed, but the effect is constant, so it shows up as a low-home-run park rather than as game-to-game swings. Live Oracle Park weather
- Wrigley Field — the park where wind matters most, by a wide margin. Wrigley Field wind, in depth
- Fenway Park — second-largest real out-vs-in gap, about two runs. Live Fenway weather
- Busch Stadium and PNC Park — smaller but real gaps of about 1.4–1.5 runs.
- Coors Field — one of the calmest parks in the data; its scoring comes from altitude, not wind.
Method and sources
- 11,581 outdoor games at 30 parks, 2021–2026; roof-closed and dome games excluded.
- Wind: Open-Meteo historical hourly data at each park's coordinates for the game window.
- Field bearings: MLB Stats API venue orientation, checked against aerial imagery.
- Scoring tests: park-season adjusted runs, Welch t-test, at least 40 games per group, real only at |t| ≥ 1.96.
Related
Where this is applied
These findings feed the game-time read on every MLB venue page, using the same sample-size and significance rules published here.
OverUnderWeather Research Desk
Independent data analysis on public sports and weather records. Studies match historical game outcomes to archived game-window weather, apply pre-set sample and significance rules, and publish null results when that is what the data show. Editorial policy and corrections log.
Cite this research
Free to republish with a visible credit and a link to this page. Ready-made citations below — click to copy.
Frequently asked
What is the windiest MLB stadium?
Oracle Park in San Francisco. In our 2021–2026 data its average game-time wind was about 14 mph, and roughly four in five games had 10+ mph — far ahead of every other open-air park. Wrigley Field is next among regular outdoor parks at about 10.5 mph.
Is the windiest stadium the one where wind matters most?
No. Wrigley Field is where wind moves scoring most: games with wind blowing out scored about 4 more runs than games with wind blowing in, against the same park and season. Oracle Park almost always gets the same wind direction, so there is no wind-in sample to compare against.
Does wind affect every MLB ballpark the same?
No. Of the 18 parks with at least 40 wind-out and 40 wind-in games, only four — Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Busch Stadium and PNC Park — show an out-vs-in scoring gap big enough to count as real. At the rest it is within the noise.
Why is Wrigley Field so windy?
Wrigley sits about a mile from Lake Michigan with an open outfield and no tall enclosing grandstand, so wind off the lake and the plains reaches the field. Its wind also changes direction a lot — out in some games, in during others — which is why its scoring swings so much.