Guessing the wind speed

Unless you carry a mobile anemometer, judging wind speeds on the trail is just a game of estimates. It would be interesting to see how well we perceive wind speeds… Last week we walked a section of the Summit Walkway east of Mt Herbert. It took three of us with linked arms to remain upright. The most violent winds I've been exposed to in years. It 'felt' like the wind speed might have been around 80km/h or more but at what speed does standing become difficult? Found this on one forum: 0-40km/h: just annoying 40-56km/h: getting pretty breezy 56-72km/h: gusts of this could start to move you around 72-88km/h: getting knocked around a bit, getting difficult to walk 88-104km/h: hard to walk, gusts of this could knock you down 104-120km/h: can barely walk forward, gusts of this knock you on your backside! 120+: Go home [Ref: http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/judging-wind-speeds-t62760.html] Would others agree with this?

I reckon I've tramped in over 120k, cant confirm it though, I had to bend over to keep walking into it, it was raining and I had to have a peak cap on and look down or the rain would sting my face too much. I've only confirmed 90k with an anemometer and the time I didn't have it was definitely stronger. just depends how willing you are to persist in strong wind.. has to be over 100k for standing to become difficult by my definition.. depends on how gusty it is, that's the worst part of strong wind...

-Has anyone here ever experienced being knocked over by wind? -What's the best strategy to avoid that (presumming there is nothing about to anchor on to). I would imagine squatting and leaning into it rather than lying down and becoming dead weight.

I was knocked over by 100kph+ winds on the Smith-Russell track a couple of years ago. I wrenched my shoulder in the process and put myself out of action for a couple of months. On the day I had to keep going to get below the treeline - I found facing in to the wind, leaning well forward on to my poles and walking crabways was the only way I could stay upright. When I could hear big gusts coming in I'd stop, hunch down over my poles and wait for the impact. The wind was so strong that hail falling on the Ruahines 10k away was being blown horizontally all the way to the Kawekas and giving me a pounding, despite clear blue skies over my position. That was the last time I ignored a wind warning in the Kawekas...it was genuinely scary.

angle of the wind also makes a difference. We gave up on climbing Mitre within 400 metres of the summit because of the wind which was not only severe but as we were on a ridge it was lifting as well. We had crawled the previous kilometer and wernt even game to carry on like that. It was no longer fun. On the way back we dropped off the lee of the ridge knowingly into a field of spaniards

I'd spent a rough morning battling up Big Creek in the Rimutaka's (under Mt Mathews).. just ascended to the ridgeline, took maybe four paces, and I was bodily picked up by a gust and flung maybe 5-8 m off the ridge and down back the way I'd come. Fortunately my fall was broken by some scrub; but it was a hell of a shock all the same. I've always reckoned 100 km/hr was hard to stand up in. That table quoted above looks about right to me.

the norwesters usually bring the blustery gusting wind that makes it harder to stand up in, southerlies are usually a more steady wind

I bought myself an anemometer some time ago as an experiment to get an idea of what various wind speeds felt like, and I think in the end it's between quite useful towards being able to guesstimate how something might feel based on a forecast... Kettering in mind that it's hard or impossible to find a portable one which claims any accuracy at over 100kph. Further discussion occurred a couple of years back at http://tramper.nz/?box=Topic&view=topic&deletemessage=0&permissiontopost=NO&id=3516&versionid=0&objectid=0&offset=1

When I climbed Patutu last year the gusts were forcing me to my knees every few minutes during the ascent, and I could not stand on the summit it was so gusty.

Frank and I were on a VMTUC trip a few years ago close to where Geeves had his escapade on Mitre. Sure, I've been knocked over a few times and done all kinds of crawling etc. in the hills but this wind actually picked Frank and me up, carried us a metre and then dropped us. Impressed.