Where exactly do you live? Like what town, city, whatever? In Cumbria, for example, Silloth, the winds are going up to 46 miles per hour, with gusts reaching as high as 71.
A Category 1 Hurricane has a minimum sustained windspeed of 74 miles per hour, so the gusts, will be almost like lots of short low category hurricanes
.
Are there any Brits here, old enough to remember the "Great Storm of 1987"? The highest recorded winds during the storm, which hit the southern England, and Northern France were 134 mph, the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane (131-155 mph), on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The most recent European Windstorm (as they are known, in Europe) that affected Britain significantly would be Kyrill, in January 2007. The strongest winds in the UK that day, were up to 99 mph.
The Saffir-Simpson scale goes:
Category 1: 74 - 95 mph (119 - 153 km/h)
Category 2: 96 - 110 mph (154 - 177 km/h)
Category 3: 111 - 130 mph (178 - 209 km/h)
Category 4: 131 - 155 mph (210 - 249 km/h)
Category 5: 156 mph and above (250 km/h and above)
Other common wind-related scales include:
Fujita scale and the
Enhanced Fujita scalefor Tornados:
F0: 40 - 72 mph (64 - 116 km/h),
EF0: 65 - 85 mph (105 - 137 km/h)
F1: 73 - 112 mph (117 - 180 km/h),
EF1: 86 - 110 mph (138 - 178 km/h)
F2: 113 - 157 mph (181 - 253 km/h),
EF2: 111 - 135 mph (179 - 218 km/h)
F3: 158 - 206 mph (254 - 332 km/h),
EF3: 136 - 165 mph (219 - 266 km/h)
F4: 207 - 260 mph (333 - 418 km/h),
EF4: 166 - 200 mph (267 - 322 km/h)
F5: 261 - 318 mph (419 - 512 km/h),
EF5: above 200 mph (above 322 km/h)
The most common wind-related scale, is the
Beaufort scale:
0 - Calm: less than 1 mph (less than 1 km/h)
1 - Light air: 1 - 3 mph (1.1 - 5.5 km/h)
2 - Light breeze: 4 - 7 mph (5.6 - 11 km/h)
3 - Gentle breeze: 8 - 12 mph (12 - 19 km/h)
4 - Moderate breeze: 13 - 17 mph (20 - 28 km/h)
5 - Fresh breeze: 18 - 24 mph (29 - 38 km/h)
6 - Strong breeze: 25 - 30 mph (39 - 49 km/h)
7 - High wind / Moderate gale / Near gale: 31 - 38 mph (50 - 61 km/h)
8 - Gale / Fresh gale: 39 - 46 mph (62 - 74 km/h)
9 - Strong gale: 47 - 54 mph (75 - 88 km/h)
10 - Storm / Whole gale: 55 - 63 mph (89 - 102 km/h)
11 - Violent storm: 64 - 72 mph (103 - 117 km/h)
12 - Hurricane: 73 mph and above (118 km/h and above)
Anyone who did not remember the Great Storm of 1987, it is comparable to Irene or Katia. (The highest winds of Irene were 120 mph, and the highest winds of Katia were 135 mph). Of course, even this is no match for the most intense Atlantic hurricane, in terms of wind speed, Hurricane Wilma, with winds up to 185 mph, sustained for 1 minute, and a record lowest pressure of 882 mb. So high, that I believe there were suggestions of including a Category 6, since they were WELL above the minimum threshold for Category 5.
Here's a re-enactment of the Great Storm of 1987, from a 1997 episode of the UK series, 999 -- which is basically the UK equivalent of Rescue 911, if anyone remembers that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kCxwkoVnLo
