In article ,
Alan White writes:
On Sun, 3 Dec 2006 14:19:26 +0000, John Hall
wrote:

But isn't it the gusts that are going to do most of the damage? That
seems to me to justify quoting them, though not to the exclusion of the
mean speed.

In a forecast, yes, but in a report, no.

I think that an extreme gust is a notable feature of the day's weather -
indeed probably the most notable - and I don't see why it shouldn't be
reported. The picture would be incomplete without it.

Analogies are risky, but let me try one. Suppose it's a cloudy winter's
day, with the temperature pretty much constant all day at 5C. However,
around noon there's a brief break in the clouds, before the sky fills in
again 15 minutes later. During that time, the temperature rises to 7C,
before falling back to 5C again. I'm sure that you wouldn't say that the
maximum temperature should be reported as 5C because the 7C only lasted
for a few minutes.
--
John Hall
"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable
of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it."
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) to a lady cellist