"Norman" wrote in message
...
While not wanting to talk down the severity of last night's storm I think
the
circumstances of the much publicised 126 mph gust in the Faeroes should be
considered.

The gust was measured at Akraberg which is at the southern tip of the
Faeroe
Islands. The weather station is listed as being at a height of 99m above
sea
level. It is at a lighthouse. A good set of photos starts at the
following:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1471677...7615336643707/

These show that the anemometer sensor appears to be on top of the
lighthouse.
The location is on an extremely exposed rock headland with a sheer cliff
on the
west side down to the sea. It looks as though there could be considerable
enhancement of the wind speed due to the air being forced to rise over the
headland.

Due to its height and exposure it is almost certain that in SW winds (the
direction at the time of the big gust) the anemometer will experience
winds
substantially stronger than would be experienced at the standard 10m
height
over the sea away from the effects of the land. I am sure that the 126 mph
gust
that was measured is not representative of anything other than the
location at
which it was measured. Having said that, it was still a storm of
considerable
note.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

Interestingly the 110 knot gust from Akraberg was reported on the 2100 Z
observation, with the greatest strength likely to have occurred in the
following few hours. Unfortunately there was no midnight data from most of
the Faeroe Islands, presumably due to power or communication problems, so it
is possible that gusts were even higher after 2100 Z. Similarly, at
Thorshavn the max reported gust was 89 KT (102 mph) reported on the 0300 Z
observation, but again the midnight data was not available.
--
Andy
http://www.romansleighweather.co.uk/