Northern Ireland’s longstanding record wind gust is almost certainly incorrect

Accurate assessment of record extreme wind gusts is important for building design standards and for industries such as insurance and forestry. Re‐inspection of archived anemograph records, together with indirect supporting evidence, shows that the current record wind gust for Northern Ireland – a gust of 108 kn (56 m/s) recorded at Kilkeel on 12 January 1974 – is almost certainly incorrect. We recommend that other longstanding UK record wind gusts should also be independently reassessed for veracity by an independent Climate Extremes Committee, following WMO and US best practice examples