FIU’s Wall of Wind: 20 Years of Extreme Weather Science
The roar builds as wind and rain lash against the walls of a low-rise South Florida home. Loose objects — chairs, a bicycle, a bird cage — lift into the air and disappear on a massive gust. The wind accelerates until the sound reaches a deafening crescendo. Suddenly, the roof tears away. For a moment, the home is perfectly still, its insides bare to the world. Then, all at once, the walls collapse. And what used to be a home scatters into the wind before violently smashing into oblivion hundreds of feet away.
This is not a real hurricane. It is science in action at FIU’s Wall of Wind (WOW), the nation’s only university-based facility capable of simulating a Category 5 hurricane and testing structures at full scale. Over the last 20 years these capacities have enabled a wide range of innovative research into extreme weather that has helped reduce the impact of storms. The 2017 hurricane season alone cost the U.S. upwards of $339.2B (2024 dollars).
“The main beneficiaries of the work done at the Wall of Wind are the communities threatened by hurricanes and other extreme weather events,” said Arindam Gan Chowdhury, director of the NSF-funded NHERI Wall of Wind Experimental Facility, interim director of the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC), and professor of civil and environmental engineering at FIU.
As Chowdhury notes, the research at WOW tests more than just buildings, and includes things like “traffic signals, transmission and power systems, bridges, everything, even the natural environment including trees and coastal features.” These infrastructure systems are often taken for granted, but when a storm disables them, the impact can be severe, bringing daily life to standstill.
The mission of WOW is twofold. First, help scientists better understand the effects of hurricane-force winds and wind-driven rain on the built and the natural environments. Then use the knowledge to make communities more resilient through technologies that provide solutions.
WOW demo of pre & post Hurricane Andrew roofs. Source: WOWExtreme Weather Across the U.S.
The work at WOW resonates far beyond South Florida.
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, and the eighth anniversaries of Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, which brought catastrophic flooding to Houston, Texas and destruction to Puerto Rico. Katrina and Harvey are the costliest storms in U.S. history, causing $201B and $160B respectively (adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars). Maria is the deadliest to strike the U.S. since the Galveston hurricane of 1900, with an estimated 3,000 lives lost.
And hurricanes are not the only extreme wind events Americans face. For example, there are tornadoes, those spiraling titans of destructive wind that are the embodiment of extreme weather in popular imagination. These events can even emerge in outbreaks, like in 2011 when over 175 tornadoes struck 3 states from April 25-28, causing an estimated $14B in damages (2024 dollars).
A time-lapse of a downburst.
More common are downbursts — powerful columns of air that slam into the ground during thunderstorms and spread outward — which also create extreme weather events. These powerful winds are just the kind of forces tested at WOW by scientists like Amal Elawady, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at FIU.
Elawady’s latest research article, of which she is a co-author, analyzes the protective and adverse roles that trees play during extreme wind conditions. She finds that whether trees shield a home from wind or make the wind force more intense depend on several factors, including the strength and direction of the wind, the species of tree, and the size and position of the tree relative to the low-rise structure (like a home).
The results of her research, itself generated by industry collaboration, could soon be included in insurance risk models. Eventually these improved risk models will help homeowners understand their unique risk for damage during extreme weather events. Research like this shows that WOW is having a broad impact beyond hurricane vulnerable coastal communities.
A World-Renowned Research Center with 20 Years of Impact
August marked the 33rd anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida in 1992. Today, WOW stands as a symbol of resilience and preparedness born from that disaster.
WOW began as a mobile prototype in 2005 with two gasoline-powered fans capable of producing 120 mph wind. In 2007, it expanded to a six-fan system that was able to simulate hurricane conditions more realistically, including wind-driven rain.
In 2012, WOW reached its current form: an 180,000 lb., 8,400-horsepower, 12-fan wall capable of replicating the destructive power of wind and rain, with speeds up to 157 mph, conditions representative of a Category 5 hurricane.
Phases of WOW: 
In that same year, researchers from the Italian university Politecnico di Milano came to WOW to test designs for the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest). True to its name, the Bosco Verticale is a pair of residential towers draped in living vegetation. By subjecting their designs to WOW’s simulated storm conditions, the team was able to evaluate how trees and other plants designed to be integrated into the façades would endure the forces of Milan’s weather.
Today, the building stands as iconic as ever, offering locals and visitors from around the world the changing colors of the seasons and a glimpse of nature and technology in balance. And for those looking with informed eyes, you can see the enduring legacy of FIU’s scientific achievements in the forest green hues of Milan’s skyline.
Over the past 20 years, WOW research has yielded tangible benefits for communities across the globe, from safer construction practices to improved risk modeling. Its work directly informs building codes and leads to stronger products, tested against hurricane conditions.
Building Codes: Small Changes, Big Impact
FIU researchers have been studying the effects of extreme wind even before the completion of the WOW or its early prototypes as part of the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) established by the Florida Board of Regents in 1996.
The IHRC, together with the Risk Reduction in the Americas program, became part of FIUs Extreme Events Institute (EEI). An early success story came from a small adjustment to roofing practices. Tests showed that ring-shank nails provide stronger anchoring for roofs than traditional smooth-shank nails. This change, adopted into Florida’s building code in 2004, has made homes significantly more resilient during hurricanes.
Fast forward to 2025 and WOW has expanded that legacy, helping to inform a host of updates to the engineering standards set by The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). These standards describe the forces, like wind, that engineers need to consider when designing structures to be safe and reliable. Updates spurred by WOW research contain guidelines for elevated homes, roof components, and canopies among others. These changes inform U.S. and international building codes and homes built to these standards are better able to withstand extreme winds.
In 2018 the ASCE distinguished WOW with the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation. ASCE recognized WOW for its pivotal role in expanding opportunities in research, innovation and education in the design, materials, and construction industries. WOW’s impact has directly enhanced the safety and resiliency of new and existing buildings and infrastructure through full- and large-scale testing.
WOW lets scientists pair what they see after real storms with full-scale simulations. This way, they can check whether their ideas hold up in the lab. At the same time, real-world observations back up the results from WOW’s experiments.
“We documented damage to dozens of elevated buildings after Hurricane Michael (2018), said Elaina Sutley, associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Kansas. "Thanks to the collaboration with the Wall of Wind staff, we were able to combine our fieldwork findings with wind tunnel experiments to quantitatively understand the impact of the gap underneath elevated buildings.”
Sutley’s research team marshaled the data produced at WOW to propose updates to the ASCE codes and “as of 2024, the building codes and standards used in the U.S. have design provisions for elevated buildings, and new elevated buildings on the coast are safer because of it,” she said.
For structural engineers, canopies are structural extensions to buildings, that are designed to resist environmental forces while serving a functional purpose, like providing protection from sun or rain. In Florida, many homes have outdoor rooms that are extensions of the roof and which have been enclosed with netting, glass or other material. These "Florida Rooms" are a kind of canopy that FIU engineers have made safer.
“My first proposal was in the 2016 version,” said Ioannis Zisis, professor of civil and environmental engineering at FIU. “We conducted research on canopies, which in Florida are often called ‘Florida rooms,’ and found that there were no relevant design guidelines in the existing building codes. To address this gap, we performed testing at the WOW. My collaboration with colleagues in Canada led to a successful proposal that introduced new design guidelines for canopies in the 2016 and 2022 versions of the ASCE/SEI 7.”
Research at WOW continues to focus on recreating and validating post-disaster field observations and updating engineering codes and standards with global implications for the daily lives of people.
Innovation and Product Development
WOW research has also led to new patents and technologies, increasing resilience across the nation — especially for the 40% of Americans living in coastal areas that are at increased risk from severe storms.
Among these pioneering innovations is the Aerodynamic Mitigation and Power System (AMPS), designed by Chowdhury and Andres Tremante, professor of mechanical and materials engineering at FIU.
AMPS uses rooftop micro-turbines, placed horizontally along the edges of the roof, to reduce wind pressure on the vulnerable corners and edges of buildings while simultaneously generating renewable energy.
The turbines resemble long, rotating metal screws. When wind flows through them, the spiral structures spin, disrupting vortices that can damage roofs while also capturing wind energy. AMPS substantially reduces the risk of roof damage during storms. The renewable energy generated can then be stored in batteries to power homes during outages or potentially supplied to the grid.
“AMPS turns wind from a foe to a friend,” said Chowdhury. “Because in the end you are using wind that would be destructive for a positive thing.”
Private companies also come to WOW to test their designs under real-world conditions. In 2017, for example, Draper Inc., a shade system company, tested its outdoor zip shade system at WOW. The company wanted to evaluate how well its products withstood wind forces and to identify ways to make their designs more resilient to extreme winds.
“There were a lot of questions from people, if I put this on my back porch, does this mean it’s good for 10 mile per hour winds, 20, what speed is it good for,” said Draper Inc Market Director Clint Childress. “We wanted to put some science behind the answer that we gave. Then we found the wall of wind, and that was the perfect situation for us to be able to test this building product, to be able to verify what our design could do and identify where the design could be improved.”
Echoing the above, John Knezevich is president of Knezevich Consulting and a licensed professional engineer. He regularly consults for Bison Innovative Products, a leading company in the roof paver industry. Knezevich believes the roofing industry has greatly benefited from the scientific testing enabled by WOW. “Now Bison has something that’s truly proven by science, and it’s legitimate. Architects, engineers, and building officials see what Bison has accomplished, and they expect it.”
Elaborating further, John Knezevich said, “probably the number one thing that the Wall of Wind has accomplished in the last 20 years is advancing the roofing industry, which benefits Florida homeowners considerably, because it directly reduces losses caused by wind damage.”
Through innovations like AMPS and extensive product testing, WOW is helping to transform not only how the built and natural environment withstand extreme wind, but also how we imagine and design solutions to it.
The Future
WOW’s success is shaping the future of extreme weather resilience research. FIU, in conjunction with a consortium of top universities and industry, is leading the design of the National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events (NICHE). The NICHE design is supported by the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure (MsRI) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Its difficult to exaggerate how massive the NICHE will be when complete. The planned facility will be the largest of its kind in the world, capable of placing structures as large as a two-story home under experimental conditions. Equally as impressive, it will be able to test these structures at full scale against the combined forces of wind, wave, and storm surge, which are common features of the most powerful storms.
“The envisioned NICHE directly responds to one of the biggest societally driven challenges of the 21st Century, addressing the vexing impacts from natural hazards to ensure communities, infrastructure, and natural environments continue to thrive,” said Arindam Chowdhury, principal investigator of NICHE. “NICHE will enable discovery of technologies and innovative solutions to foster resilient communities that are safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
NICHE Diagrams. Source: NSF NHERI
The multi-university collaboration marks the next chapter in the effort to protect communities from increasingly extreme weather.
Additionally, NICHE will house a digital twin of the facility. The digital twin will enable researchers to create high-resolution virtual simulations of their experiments. These virtual simulations will allow researchers to tweak experimental conditions digitally and place participants and stakeholders into fully immersive virtual conditions, experiencing experimental storm conditions from the ground up. "Visualizing first-hand the benefit of a mitigation solution at full scale under realistic wind-wave conditions will act as a strong motivator for implementing strategies at a regional level to reduce losses from future storms," concluded Arindam Chowdhury.
This fall, FIU will also unveil the Wind-Only Physical Design Testbed (WOPDT), featuring a single 16-foot-fan that can generate 200 mph winds, which will help researchers understand the effects of the very strongest storms. WOPDT will inform the NICHE design in the short term and will be upgraded in the coming years, potentially giving it the capacity to complement the full-scale NICHE.
Upon completion, the NICHE will be incorporated into NSF’s Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the NHERI network advances natural hazards engineering research to protect human life, reduce damage and minimize economic losses during natural hazard events.
Located at universities across the U.S., NHERI's experimental facilities support research on mitigating damage caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, windstorms, storm surge and flooding, and other hazards.
NICHE is the next phase of extreme weather simulation, building on two decades of innovation at WOW. Integrated within NHERI, it will help guide extreme weather research now and into the future, enabling larger-scale testing against multiple hazards and the increasingly powerful conditions that define modern storms.