Review of errors in archived wind data

Cook, Nicholas

doi:10.1002/wea.2148

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Although recorded at 1 knot intervals, for high winds some clustering of wind observations was noted around integer multiples of 10 knots (consistent with DeGaetano [] and Cook []). This is likely a consequence of observers reading values from analogue anemometers, as still used in much of Africa, which have high wind speeds only marked at 10 knot intervals.…”

Section: Methods and Datasupporting

confidence: 84%

The importance of rare, high‐wind events for dust uplift in northern Africa

Cowie

Marsham

Knippertz

2015

Geophysical Research Letters

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Dust uplift is a nonlinear thresholded function of wind speed and therefore particularly sensitive to the long tails of observed wind speed probability density functions. This suggests that a few rare high‐wind events can contribute substantially to annual dust emission. Here we quantify the relative roles of different wind speeds to dust‐generating winds using surface synoptic observations of dust emission and wind from northern Africa. The results show that winds between 2 and 5 m s−1 above the threshold cause the most emission. Of the dust‐generating winds, 25% is produced by very rare events occurring only at 0.1 to 1.4% of the time, depending on the region. Dust‐producing winds are underestimated in ERA‐I, since it misses the long tail found in observations. ERA‐I overpredicts (underpredicts) the frequency of emission strength winds in the southern (northern) regions. These problems cannot be solved by simple tunings. Finally, we show that rare events make the largest contribution to interannual variability in dust‐generating winds and that ERA severely underestimates this interannual variability.

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Section: Methods and Datasupporting

confidence: 84%

The importance of rare, high‐wind events for dust uplift in northern Africa

Cowie

Marsham

Knippertz

2015

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The observations were checked for the bias errors and artefacts described in Cook (2014a) using the automated detection methodology described in Cook (2014b). The wind speed units were restored from the NCDC archive units (MPH) to the original units of integer knots.…”

Section: Station Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

A statistical model of the seasonal-diurnal wind climate at Adelaide

Cook¹

2015

AMOJ

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The seasonal-diurnal variation of surface winds observed at Adelaide Airport (South Australia) over 40 years is modelled in terms of the zonal-meridional wind vectors. Calms are assessed separately from the wind vectors. The joint probability density function of the wind vectors is modelled as the sum of a number of disjoint bivariate normal distributions in the zonal-meridional plane. An overview of the data suggests three diurnal mechanisms: sea-to-land breezes, land-to-sea breezes and downslope drainage flows off the Adelaide Hills, together with two non-diurnal large-scale weather mechanisms that are modulated by the annual migration of the sub-tropical ridge. It is shown that, typically, two of the three diurnal components contribute to the joint probability density function for any given hour of day and month, together with the two large-scale weather components. Optimisation is used to quantify the model parameters directly from the joint probability density function. The robustness of the methodology is verified using standard "Bootstrapping" methods. The model elucidates the principal climate mechanisms at Adelaide in terms of the seasonaldiurnal variation of the joint statistics of wind speed and direction using just the mean, annual, semi-annual, diurnal and semi-diurnal harmonics.

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“…Such a committee, which could reside under the mantle of the RMetS's Meteorological Observing Systems Special Interest Group, would have terms of reference similar to that of the WMO Global Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes (Purevjav et al ., 2015) and of the National Climate Extremes Committee in the USA (Cerveny et al ., 2007). Impartial assessment of UK extreme weather records is particularly relevant for record gusts because these records are long‐standing and there remain unresolved questions concerning the homogeneity of wind speed records made by older anemometer instruments (Smith, 1981; Miller et al ., 2013; Cook, 2014). The creation of an impartial weather and climate extremes panel in the UK would ensure the validity and reliability of extremes by collecting and assessing all the available evidence before such extremes are published in ‘official’ listings, and act to ensure permanent and secure archiving of all documentation related to the event.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, users of wind data often require knowledge of the 50‐year gust return period (Palutikof et al ., 1999). As there may be a shorter period of observations with which to derive such statistical estimates, the impact on users of an erroneous extreme gust can be considerable (Cook, 2014), especially if it represents the highest gust on the available record. Of course, there are other sources of uncertainty with regard to wind record homogeneity, including those arising from changes of instrument and thus recording characteristics (including response time) during the period of record, changes in site and exposure which may or may not be fully documented, variations in manual record analyses, and the quality of analogue‐to‐digital data conversions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Burt

2021

Weather

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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 1974was 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.

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Review of errors in archived wind data

Cited by 16 publications

References 6 publications

The importance of rare, high‐wind events for dust uplift in northern Africa

The importance of rare, high‐wind events for dust uplift in northern Africa

A statistical model of the seasonal-diurnal wind climate at Adelaide

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

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