Aaarrrggghh!!! One of my pet hates and even the Met Office is at it.
The current early warning for heavy rain contains the following gem:

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"That rain will be accompanied by strong southerly winds with gusts
to gale or severe gale force over southern and southeastern England."
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I quote from the Met Office's own document titled "Terms used for
describing mean surface wind speed":

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"Beaufort Forces apply ONLY to mean wind speeds (the average over a
given period of time - usually one clock hour) and MUST NOT be used in
reference to gusts"
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The words in capitals in that quote are as given in the Met Office
document.

If the Met Office can't get it right and include sensationalist terms
in their warnings and forecasts can we blame the media for doing the
same. The message would have been correctly conveyed by saying "strong
southerly winds with gusts to 40-45 knots", or the mph equivalents.
Instead, they are giving the impression that there will be severe gales
over southern and southeastern England.

Norman
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Norman Lynagh
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
85m a.s.l.
(remove "thisbit" twice to e-mail)