Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 9 - Measuring wind speed and direction

  • from Part II - Measuring the weather
  • Stephen Burt, Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society
  • Book:
    The Weather Observer's Handbook
    Published online:
    21 May 2024
    Print publication:
    25 April 2024, pp 217-250

  • Summary

    In order to provide representative measurements of wind speed and direction, measuring devices must be deployed in suitable locations or sites and the instruments themselves exposed to the wind they are intended to measure in a standardised manner. This chapter sets out what those standardised conditions of site and exposure are for measurements of wind speed and direction, including the treatment of wind gusts and construction of the vector mean wind, following the guidelines laid down by the World Meteorological Organization in the so-called CIMO guide (Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation). Well-exposed sites can be difficult to find, and optimal exposure conditions for wind instruments differ considerably from most other meteorological instruments. Instruments to measure both wind speed (cup and sonic anemometers) and wind direction (wind vanes and sonic anemometers) are covered, with their limitations, together with a description of the Beaufort wind scale, which is useful if suitable instruments (or a suitable site for them) are not available.