Woman nearly blown away in Chicago winds

They don't call Chicago the windy city for nothing, as you can see from the footage above.

This poor woman got into difficulty in the strong winds recently and ended up clinging on to the side of a building for dear life to stop herself from blowing away in the extreme weather.

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The roaring wind in Chicago reached upwards of 72mph just shy of hurricane strength.

According to the National Hurricane Center and the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane and Wind Scale, category 1 winds of 74 to 95mph indicate 'very dangerous winds will produce' some damage.

The Saffir-Simpson scale runs to category 5 which includes winds of 157mph or higher that are likely to cause 'catastrophic damage'.

TV news meteorologist Byron Miranda was in Chicago covering the dangerous conditions nearby and tried to help the struggling woman cross the street, nearly getting himself blown away in the process.

The winds in the city were so strong the meteorologist needed several people to help the woman make it across the pavement and into a taxi.

According to NBC Chicago, the weather conditions in the city had been so severe that several buildings in the downtown area had to be evacuated after debris started flying through the air.

Chris Anderson was one of those to be evacuated, he told the news station: "We were all just looking at the windows, they sent an email out in the building telling people to move away from the windows and then maybe a half hour later they said they came on the speakers and said to evacuate via stairwell."

Thousands of people in the city also lost power and there were as many as 227 'tree emergencies' at the end of last week.