Article: Letson, F; Pryor, SC; Barthelmie, RJ; Hu, W; “Observed Gust Wind Speeds in the Coterminous United States, and their Relationship to Local and Regional Drivers”, Journal of Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 173:199-209
Abstract: Given the importance of wind gusts to structural design and the economic and ecological impacts of extreme winds, there is a need for better understanding of the spatial variability of wind gusts. Sonic anemometer wind measurements at 10-m a.g.l. from 801 US National Weather Service Automated Surface Observation System sites are used to characterize gust climates across the coterminous United States. These data indicate substantial regional and sub-regional variability across a range of gust metrics. For example, the locally-determined 95th percentile gust values exceed 16.46 ms(-1) at most sites throughout the central plains, but are below 14.40 ms(-1) throughout almost all of the southeastern stations.
When site-specific gust metrics are conditionally sampled by the likelihood of deep convection and frequency of extra-tropical cyclones, the results indicate that gust factors tend to be lower in regions with higher convective potential, and higher in areas with a higher frequency of extra tropical cyclones. Conversely, 1 and 10-year return period gusts are higher in the region with high convective potential, but do not exhibit consistently higher values in regions with a high frequency of extra-tropical cyclones. Terrain complexity and higher surface roughness are also found to increase gust factors but not absolute gust magnitudes.
Funding Acknowledgement:
NSF [1540393]; Cornell University’s David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (ACSF) [2015-AVF-SP2279]
Funding Text:
We gratefully acknowledge funding from NSF (1540393) and the Cornell University’s David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (ACSF, 2015-AVF-SP2279). We also appreciate the scientists responsible for collating and quality checking the ASOS measurements that are available from the National Centers for Environmental Information (ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/asos-fivemin/) and the insightful comments of our peer-reviewers
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