What is the strongest recorded wind?
3373620#6
Generally speaking, the intensity of a tropical cyclone is determined by either the storm's maximum sustained winds or lowest barometric pressure. The following table lists the most intense Atlantic hurricanes in terms of their lowest barometric pressure. In terms of wind speed, Hurricane Allen (in 1980) was the strongest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record, with maximum sustained winds of . However, these measurements are suspect since instrumentation used to document wind speeds at the time would likely succumb to winds of such intensity. Nonetheless, their central pressures are low enough to rank them among the strongest recorded Atlantic hurricanes.
Atlantic hurricane
15440316#50
Australia's Barrow Island holds the record for the strongest wind gust, reaching 408 km/h (253 mph) during tropical cyclone Olivia on 10 April 1996, surpassing the previous record of 372 km/h (231 mph) set on Mount Washington (New Hampshire) on the afternoon of 12 April 1934. The most powerful gusts of wind on Earth were created by nuclear detonations. The blast wave is similar to a strong wind gust over the ground. The largest nuclear explosion (50–58 megatons at an altitude of about ) generated a 20 bar blast pressure at ground zero, which is similar to a wind gust of .
Wind
165198#7
The fastest wind speed not related to tornadoes ever recorded was during the passage of Tropical Cyclone Olivia on 10 April 1996: an automatic weather station on Barrow Island, Australia, registered a maximum wind gust of 408 km/h (220 kn; 253 mph; 113 m/s). The wind gust was evaluated by the WMO Evaluation Panel who found that the anemometer was mechanically sound and the gust was within statistical probability and ratified the measurement in 2010. The anemometer was mounted 10 m above ground level (and thus 64 m above sea level). During the cyclone, several extreme gusts of greater than 300 km/h (160 kn; 83 m/s) were recorded, with a maximum 5-minute mean speed of 176 km/h (95 kn; 110 mph; 49 m/s), the extreme gust factor was in the order of 2.27–2.75 times the mean wind speed. The pattern and scales of the gusts suggest that a mesovortex was embedded in the already strong eyewall of the cyclone.
Wind speed
40902752#19
A gust of 120.8 miles per hour (194.4 km/h) was recorded in southern Denmark, the strongest wind recorded in the country's history, however the Danish Meteorological Institute is convinced that the 1999 storm had even higher wind speeds, but different methods and faulty equipment meant that recordings were less than in 2013.
St. Jude storm
81470#18
In early December 2011, the Santa Ana winds were the strongest yet recorded. An atmospheric set-up occurred that allowed the towns of Pasadena and Altadena in the San Gabriel Valley to get whipped by sustained winds at , and gusts up to . The winds toppled thousands of trees, knocking out power for over a week. Schools were closed, and a "state of emergency" was declared. The winds grounded planes at LAX, destroyed homes, and were even strong enough to snap a concrete stop light from its foundation. The winds also ripped through Mammoth Mountain and parts of Utah. Mammoth Mountain experienced a near-record wind gust of , on December 1, 2011.
Santa Ana winds
2207794#5
On April 2, 1973, the second strongest surface wind gust ever recorded in the United States of America was measured by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers on the summit. Although wind velocity maxima were measured at , this reading represents the physical limit of the recording instrument, and thus the true value may have been quite higher. Only the record value measured on nearby Mount Washington in 1934 exceeds this value in terms of American wind extrema.
Cannon Mountain (New Hampshire)
74644#24
Hurricane Charley in 2004—the first of three hurricanes to hit the county in six weeks—is the strongest storm in recent history to pass through the county, mainly impacting the eastern half of the county. The Lake Wales Fire Department recorded an unofficial maximum wind speed of sustained and a gust of . The hurricane entered the county south of Fort Meade, shortly after it passed Wauchula (in Hardee County), where a maximum wind gust of was recorded by emergency management officials. The hurricane-force wind field was relatively narrow, with the most intense wind damage being within of the center of the eye. For example maximum recorded winds were only sustained and a gust of at Gilbert Airport on the northwest side of the city.
Polk County, Florida
7394697#3
The strongest winds in a northern hemisphere tropical cyclone is located in the eyewall and the right front quadrant of the tropical cyclone. Severe damage is usually the result when the eyewall of a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone passes over land. The right front quadrant is also an area of a tropical cyclone were the winds are strongest. The reason that the winds are at the front right side of a storm in the northern hemisphere (and the front left hand side in the Southern Hemisphere) is because of the motion of a tropical cyclone contributing to its rotation. A 100 mph hurricane while stationary, might have winds of 100 mph on its right side in the northern hemisphere while the rest of the storm might have winds at 70 mph. The location of the right ( or left in the Southern Hemisphere) front quadrant also depends on the storm track. For example, in the northern hemisphere, if the storm was moving west, then the right side is to the north, if it moving north, then the strongest winds will be to the east of the center.
In the southern hemisphere, the strongest winds are to the left of the eye. That is because cyclonic winds below the equator, spin clockwise.
Tropical cyclone windspeed climatology
42957656#14
The extratropical remnants of Nanmadol brought record breaking rainfall and winds to Japan. A station in Shishikui, Tokushima received of rain, the highest amount documented in the country. Several other stations recorded rainfall totals in excess of . Maximum sustained winds clocked at 88 km/h (55 mph) in Chiba, Chiba and Ojima, Tokyo, were the strongest ever recorded in December for those locations. The same station in Chiba clocked a wind gust at 176 km/h (109 mph), another record for the month of December and the highest reported wind gust in Japan from Nanmadol's remnants. A 145 km/h (90 mph) wind gust was recorded in Tokyo; this gust broke the record for the strongest gust recorded in the city since record-keeping began. Offshore Kagoshima Prefecture, a ferry capsized in rough waters, killing five. The captain of the ferry was later charged with professional negligence. In Aomori Prefecture, widespread power outages resulted from the strong winds. Heavy rains in Aichi Prefecture flooded several roads and damaged fisheries and agricultural land. One person was injured there, and damage totaled JP¥69.8 million (US$680,000).
Typhoon Nanmadol (2004)
19286796#0
The New Year's Day Storm () was a powerful European windstorm that affected much of northern Scotland and western Norway on 1 January 1992. DNMI estimated the strongest sustained winds (10 min. average) and the strongest gusts to have reached 90 knots (46 m/s) and 62 m/s, respectively. Unofficial records of gusts in excess of 130 knots (67 m/s) were recorded in Shetland, while Statfjord-B in the North Sea recorded wind gusts in excess of 145 knots (75 m/s). There were very few fatalities, mainly due to the rather low population of the islands, and the fact that the islanders are used to powerful wind, and because it struck in the morning on a public holiday when people were indoors. In Norway there were one fatality, in Frei, Møre og Romsdal county. There were also two fatalities on Unst in the Shetland Isles.
1992 New Year's Day Storm
37530#63
While direct measurement of the most violent tornado wind speeds is nearly impossible, since conventional anemometers would be destroyed by the intense winds and flying debris, some tornadoes have been scanned by mobile Doppler radar units, which can provide a good estimate of the tornado's winds. The highest wind speed ever measured in a tornado, which is also the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet, is 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h) in the F5 Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, tornado which killed 36 people. Though the reading was taken about above the ground, this is a testament to the power of the strongest tornadoes.
Tornado