Improved extreme wind speed estimation for wind engineering applications

The description of the extreme wind climate is an important step in the process of determining wind loads on structures. Factors that affect the estimation of extreme wind speeds include spatiotemporal data resolution, micrometeorological characterization, and extreme value statistics. Accounting for these factors inadequately can result in estimation differences that can exceed 50%. Issues associated with these factors are explained in detail and improvements in current estimation practice are outlined. Research presented in this paper shows that recent and ongoing progress makes it possible to produce significantly improved extreme wind speed estimates.