What do you think of this fact?
A strong autumn storm might bring gusts of 120 km/h. Trees fall and roof tiles fly. Now imagine a wind more than three times as fast.
The record wind
On April 10, 1996, Tropical Cyclone Olivia swept across Australia’s northwest coast. On small Barrow Island stood a weather station with an anemometer, a device that measures wind speed.
According to Guinness World Records, it recorded a gust of 408 kilometers per hour (253 mph). According to Guinness, it’s the fastest wind speed ever recorded on Earth that wasn’t associated with a tornado.
Confirmed years later
The record went unnoticed for a long time. According to Guinness, a World Meteorological Organization panel reviewed the measurement later and officially ratified it in 2010. The panel found the anemometer mechanically sound and the gust within statistical probability.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology lists Olivia in its archive as a severe tropical cyclone.
Bonus fact: 408 km/h is faster than the top speed of many sports cars. No person could stay on their feet in a wind like that.
Why was the gust measured on Barrow Island of all places? Cyclones are huge, but weather stations are few and far between. Olivia passing right over a station was a stroke of luck for science. Many other storms may have had gusts just as strong that nobody measured.
Barrow Island, by the way, is an island where oil and gas are produced. That’s why there was a weather station there at all.
Thankfully, most people never experience winds like that. A decent autumn storm is enough to flip umbrellas inside out.