Maximum Wind Gusts Associated with Human-Reported Nonconvective Wind Events and a Comparison to Current Warning Issuance Criteria

Abstract

Abstract Nonconvective high winds are a deceptively hazardous meteorological phenomenon. Though the National Weather Service (NWS) possesses an array of products designed to alert the public to nonconvective wind potential, documentation justifying the choice of issuance thresholds is scarce. Measured wind speeds from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)-Daily dataset associated with human-reported nonconvective wind events from Storm Data are examined in order to assess the suitability of the current gust criteria for the NWS wind advisory and high wind warning. Nearly 92% (45%) of the nonconvective wind events considered from Storm Data were accompanied by peak gusts beneath the high wind warning (wind advisory) threshold of 58 mi h−1 (25.9 m s−1) [46 mi h−1 (20.6 m s−1)], and greater than 74% (28%) of all fatal and injury-causing events were associated with peak gusts below these same product gust criteria. NWS wind products were disproportionately issued in areas of complex terrain where wind climatologies include a greater frequency of high wind warning threshold-level gusts, irrespective of observed impacts. For many areas of the eastern United States, a 58 mi h−1 (25.9 m s−1) gust of convective, tropical, or nonconvective origin falls within the top 0.5% of all observed daily maximum wind gusts, nearly eliminating the possibility of a nonconvective gust meeting the issuance criterion.