The UK’s highest low-level wind speed re-examined: the Fraserburgh gust of 13 February 1989

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Burt, S. D. orcid id iconORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5125-6546 (2021) The UK’s highest low-level wind speed re-examined: the Fraserburgh gust of 13 February 1989. Weather, 76 (1). pp. 4-11. ISSN 0043-1656 doi: 10.1002/wea.3864

Abstract/Summary

Accurate assessment of extreme wind gusts is important for many infrastructure requirements, particularly in building design standards and for insurance purposes. In a previous paper (Aylott et al. 2020) Northern Ireland’s record wind gust – 108 kn (56 m s-1) recorded at Kilkeel on 12 January 1974 — was critically re-examined, and found to be almost certainly incorrect due to instrumental error or a power surge. A recommendation was made that other longstanding United Kingdom record wind gusts should also be independently re-examined to assess their veracity. In this paper the arguments for and against the authenticity of the current record low-level wind gust for Scotland, and the UK national record, namely 123 kn (63 m s 1) recorded at the Kinnaird Head Lighthouse at Fraserburgh on 13 February 1989, are reviewed. Two ‘gusts’ > 100 kn were probably record artefacts owing to brief power supply interruptions to the recording anemograph, and accordingly neither should remain included in the list of national wind speed records.

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Item Type Article
URI https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/93225
Identification Number/DOI 10.1002/wea.3864
Refereed Yes
Divisions Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher Wiley
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