CRJ-700 pilot reported while on approach to landing they experienced moderate to severe turbulence and the reported winds were variable and gusting. The flight crew lost control of aircraft resulting in a wing ground strike and go-around. The flight crew regained control of the aircraft and landed safely at the airport.

Narrative

During landing phase our right wingtip contacted the pavement during a rejected landing procedure in gusty winds. I was pilot flying and the Captain was pilot monitoring. Our first indication that conditions might not have been what were reported was when we descended through approximately 8;000 feet we encountered moderate to severe turbulence coming over the mountain ridge on descent. We were descending at 250 knots at 1500 FPM. We noticed rapidly increasing airspeed so I put the thrust levers to idle and deployed the flight spoilers fully and when that still wasn't enough I pitched to level flight. Before this first wave of turbulence was over we had accelerated rapidly to 280 knots. Once the speed was coming back I stowed the spoilers and within several seconds I had to pop the thrust levers into the climb detent just to maintain airspeed. Once we leveled out below the cloud layer it smoothed out considerably for the rest of the flight to the destination airport. The ATIS at our destination was information ATIS 1 and the winds were reported at 230@14 gusting to 21 knots variable from 190 to 270. We were landing RW XX. This was a visual approach and we were configured on schedule. On the approach we added a gust factor to our Vref speed and I was working the thrust levers almost constantly to keep the speed within our parameters of +10 and -0 knots from the bugged speed. We were mostly getting positive increases in performance. We never got a windshear warning or caution at any point on the approach either. I was aiming for the aiming point and right as I went to put the thrust to idle and enter the flare we experienced an increase in performance from a wind gust that lasted several seconds causing us to float. We became uncomfortable due to the fact that we only had about 2;200' of touchdown zone to be within our criteria which I had briefed on the arrival briefing. The captain called for a go around and I immediately began going through the actions and callouts for the rejected landing/go around. It was during this vulnerable phase below Vref that our airspeed decreased once we lost the positive performance of the sustained gust and what we thought was our right main landing gear touched the ground but upon inspection found that the right wingtip did too. Keep in mind we were getting rocked around considerably by the wind so during the rejected landing procedure I was fighting to keep wings level and the gust or perhaps the loss of the gust that caused our right wing to drop combined with the reduced controllability from the slow speed; my correction with left aileron was either too little or too late and that is when the wingtip must have contacted the runway. We went through the actions and callouts of the go around; climbed up to a safe altitude and received vectors back around for a second attempt and subsequent safe landing. I should also mention that once the captain saw what we were dealing with for winds he elected to perform the second attempt and landing and asked tower for updated winds to make sure we were still within aircraft limitations to land.Cause: The cause of this event was a significant change in wind speed and or direction from what was reported that ultimately caused us to end up slow over the runway while performing a rejected landing procedure during which our right wing dropped and contacted the runway. Actual wind conditions differing from and greater than reported winds. The sudden loss of lift and airspeed following the positive performance gust we encountered during the flare and subsequent loss of performance and entering the rejected landing procedure at that slow speed.Contributing factors for the speed increase above 250 knots below 10;000 was encountering severe turbulence on decent.Suggestions: After debriefing this flight and considering all of the factors and options for preventing a re-occurrence of this type of event I believe the most effective method would be that in gusty conditions like we encountered to have a plan to firmly plant the aircraft at or just after the 1000' aiming points which was my intention. The main thing we could have done better was to go around sooner than we did on this flight so that airspeed wouldn't have a chance to decrease as much as it did in this instance. Doing so would have provided increased controllability in the gusty conditions leading up to either a touchdown or the rejected landing and go around.