The UK's highest low-level wind speed re-examined: the Fraserburgh gust of 13 February 1989
Burt, Stephen
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 - 108kn (56ms?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 123kn (63ms?1) recorded at the Kinnaird Head Lighthouse at Fraserburgh on 13 February 1989, are reviewed. Two 'gusts' >100kn 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. </p>
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