Criteria for environmental wind conditions

Since 1971 a number of authors have published criteria for the acceptability of environmental wind conditions for human comfort for a range of activities. This paper notes that it is the forces caused by peak gust wind speeds and associated gradients which people feel most and discusses the relation between peak gust and mean wind speeds. Melbourne's criteria, which have been stated in terms of maximum gust speeds per annum, are shown to define a range of wind-speed probabilities, in particular, the frequency of occurrence of mean wind speeds, which then facilitates comparison between the various published criteria. It is shown that, in spite of the apparent numerical differences in published wind speed criteria and the various subjective assumptions used in their development, there is remarkably good agreement when they are compared on a proper probabilistic basis.