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Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics54/55 (1995) 183-190

Analysis of peak gust versus fastest-mile wind statistics

R i c h a r d E. P e t e r s o n a, Steven D. G o l d s t e i n a, K.C. M e h t a *'b
a Department o f Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1023, USA b Department o f Civil Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1023, USA

Abstract

The relationship between peak gust wind speed and fastest 1 min (or fastest-mile) wind speed occurring within the same hour has been studied for five stations in the United States. For each station at least ten years of observations were used to investigate the relationship and its variation seasonally, diurnally and with different concomitant weather events. As a result it appears that peak gust wind data could be used to estimate the fastest 1 min wind for stations where the latter is not available.

1. Introduction

Surface weather records for stations in the United States may include several properties of the observed wind in addition to the hourly value: the daily fastest-mile speed, fastest 1 min speed and/or peak gust. Many climatological studies have been based on but one of these parameters, e.g., the annual fastest-mile speed. Engineers establish wind climate for building design purposes using the annual fastest-mile wind; this limits use of wind speed data collected for other averaging times. For example, the wind speed map of the ASCE 7-88 is based on data collected at 129 stations. This investigation focuses on the possible correlation between the fastest-mile wind and the peak gust for stations where both are available. Such a relationship would offer the possibility for expanding the data sources by combining information from stations where only one of the items is recorded.

2. Wind data sources

There are numerous sources of archived wind data in the United States: National Weather Service (NWS) stations, Federal Aviation Administration stations, military

* Corresponding author. 0167-6105/95/$09.50 1995Elsevier ScienceB.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0 1 6 7 - 6 1 0 5 ( 9 4 ) 0 0 0 4 1 - B

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stations, contract observation stations, and automatic weather stations. NWS data is available on strip charts, surface observation records and published in Local Climatological Data summaries (LCDs). Wind observations include the sustained wind, peak gust and fastest-mile (or fastest 1 min) wind. Nominally wind is recorded just prior to the hour along with the other meteorological parameters to yield the hourly report. Under changing weather conditions, winds are recorded more frequently. The wind speeds are recorded by observers who watch the anemometer gauge for a period of 1 min. The average speed during the period is the sustained wind observation. The highest sustained value during the day is the fastest 1 min wind speed. Gusts are recorded by looking back over the strip chart at the time of each hourly observation. The greatest peak wind for the prior 10 min is the gust noted on the observation (assumed to be a 2 to 3 s average). Peak gust values are recorded during special weather conditions, such as thunderstorms. Before 1987 NWS observations also gave the fastest-mile wind, which was the highest speed for which a "mile of wind" passed the station. This parameter has been widely used by engineers in extreme wind climatologies.

3. Data selection

Both LCDs and NWS surface observation must be examined to draw out the data on peak gust and fastest-mile (or 1 min) winds. In selecting monthly data, the LCDs are inspected to determine the data and character of the fastest mile (or 1 min) wind. With the day of the month identified, the daily paper record is then inspected to determine the corresponding peak gust. In order to be included in the data base of this study, it was required that the fastest-mile value and the peak gust value fall within 1 h period. Other weather conditions (blowing dust, thunderstorm, etc.) at the observation time were also noted for later stratification of the statistics. Five stations were chosen for analysis (Fig. 1). Amarillo (AMA) and Lubbock (LBB) are in the Texas High Plains. It would be expected that the weather phenomena responsible for extreme winds at the two sites would be similar; the relation between fastest-mile and peak gust winds might also be similar. Kansas City (MCI) and Minneapolis (MSP) are in the Central Plains but with a wider latitude separation than AMA and LBB. The characteristic weather events would be somewhat different from the High Plains sites. Syracuse (SYR) is in the Northeast with possibly a much different set of high-wind generation phenomena. The period chosen for study varied from station to station dictated by data accessibility and homogeneity of the data collection: AMA 1980-1990; MCI 1975-1990; LBB 1980-1990; MSP 1975-1991; and SYR 1973-1990. Amarillo was one of the stations used in assembling the current ASCE 7-88 wind load standards map; the period selected for this study overlapped that used for the map. Minneapolis was also used for the ASCE 7-88 map, and there have been other analyses of wind speed distributions there. Syracuse also was part of the ASCE 7-88 data base.

R.E. Peterson et at,./J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190

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Anemometers in all cases are located in relatively smooth and open terrain, so the roughness heights should be similar. Instrument elevations differed slightly: 33 ft (AMS and MSP), 32 ft (MKC), 28 ft (SYR) and 25 ft (LBB). The variation of gust factors with height is poorly known. In lieu of reducing the data to a standard height (as would be done for comparing sustained winds), it was assumed that any relationships between the extreme wind parameters would be relatively insensitive to small variations in elevation.

4. Results When all data for the five stations are composited (773 points), the relationship between monthly peak gust P and fastest-mile (1 min) wind speed F is given by P=5.82+l.16F inmph,

with r 2 = 0.70 (Fig. 2). It may be noted that the scatter increases toward the high speeds; many of these are associated with thunderstorms. Considering the data station by station (Figs. 3a-3e), the r 2 values range from 0.62 (MSP) to 0.77 (LBB). In all cases the peak gust is greater than the fastest mile (1 min) speed, but the slope of the relationship varies, 0.98 (SYR) to 1.41 (LBB); statistics of the relationship are shown in Table 1. The relationships roughly fall into two groups: AMA, MKC and SYR are similar, LBB and MSP are similar.

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R.E. Peterson et al./J. Wind Eng. Ind, Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190

The data, composited as well as by station, can be stratified according to various criteria: season, time of day, weather events, etc. With a smaller selection of points, however, the statistical relationship becomes less clear cut. For example, for the total data set 25% (190 points) of the events were associated with thunderstorm activity: 18% for SYR to 2 9 0 for MCI. For the total set the slope of the relationship, 1.14, is virtually identical to that for the thunderstorm set (see Table 2). If the data are screened for non-thunderstorm winds, as indicated in Table 3, the statistics of the relationship do not change significantly. With more stable atmospheric conditions, winds at night are usually lighter; however high wind events with abundant mechanical turbulence might be expected to mix momentum from overhead about as well during the night as in daytime. In fact, the 34% of events that occurred at night had a slope of 1.14 (see Table 4), only slightly different from the total. Larger differences show up considering summer versus winter events; the slope is 1.20 in June and 0.98 in December (see Table 4). Also the winds associated with blowing dust events (visibility below 7 miles) yield a slope of 1.24 (see Table 4); these only occur at AMA and LBB, for which the total subset slopes shown (Table 1) were 1.07 and 1.41, respectively.

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R.E. Peterson et aL /J.. Wind Eng. lnd. Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190 90
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Fig. 3. (a) Regression analysis of peak gusts versus fastest 1 min winds: the total winds for Amarillo (1970-1990); (b) the total winds for Kansas City (June 1979-December 1990); (c) the total winds for Lubbock (January 1980-December 1988 and October 1989-December 1990); (d) the total winds for Minneapolis (1980-1991); (e) the total winds for Syracuse (1977-1987).

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R.E. Peterson et al. /3. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190
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R.E. Peterson et al./J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190 90
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Table 1 Statistics of relationships between peak gust and fastest-mile (1 min), P = A + BF in m p h Data group Constant A 5.82 9.34 6.94 - 2.31 0.69 9.21 Slope B 1.16 1.07 1.14 1.41 1.36 0.98 r2 Data points 773 249 137 122 136 129

all stations Amarillo K a n s a s City Lubbock Minneapolis Syracuse

0.70 0.73 0.67 0.77 0.62 0.65

Table 2 Statistics of relationships for thunderstorm winds Data group Constant A 8.69 16.25 14.15 - 7.60 4.69 4.15 Slope B 1.14 0.92 1.01 1.62 1.32 1.14 r2 Data points 190 64 40 25 38 23

all stations Amarillo K a n s a s City Lubbock Minneapolis Syracuse

0.60 0.59 0.56 0.73 0.51 0.74

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R.E. Peterson et al./J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 54/55 (1995) 183-190

Table 3 Statistics of relationships for non-thunderstorm winds Data group all stations Amarillo Kansas City Lubbock Minneapolis Syracuse Constant A 6.12 7.71 5.85 1.38 3.72 10.20 Slope B 1.13 1.11 1.14 1.28 1.23 0.95
r2

Data points 583 185 97 97 98 106

0.75 0.77 0.76 0.83 0.65 0.63

Table 4 Statistics of relationships for specific stratifications Data group Nocturnal Blowing Dust June December Constant A 7.58 3.75 5.97 11.24 Slope B 1.14 1.24 1.20 0.97
r2

Data points 263 73 64 66

0.66 0.80 0.68 0.59

5. Conclusions
It is possible to translate wind speeds recorded by the U.S. National Weather Service from peak gust to fastest-mile (fastest 1 min) or vice versa. However it is not prudent to use data of a single station to establish a relationship between peak gust and fastest-mile (1 min) because of significant variations from site to site. The simple statistics of the slope and constant of the linear relationship show significant differences between the five stations. The statistics of the relationship are not affected drastically for subsets of thunderstorm, seasonal, nocturnal or blowing dust winds.

Acknowledgement
This paper is based on the master's degree thesis completed by the second author in Atmospheric Sciences at Texas Tech University. The research was conducted under the Cooperative P r o g r a m on Wind Engineering between Colorado State University and Texas Tech University through the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation G r a n t BCS-8821542.