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

Burt, Stephen David

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Burt, S. D. ORCID: 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

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To link to this item 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.

Item Type:	Article
Refereed:	Yes
Divisions:	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:	93225
Publisher:	Wiley

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References

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Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2021 15:53	Date item deposited into CentAUR
Last Modified:	29 Jun 2025 10:18	Date item last modified