winds near the Earth's surface

For scales of wind speed and of storm intensity (damage, due in large part to wind velocities), see:

Saffir-Simpson Damage Potential Scale
F (Fujita) scale
Beaufort wind scales
Griggs-Putnam scale of plant deformity

Highest wind speeds, excluding tornados

All wind records in the United States, except those involving tornados, have been set on Mount Washington in New Hampshire:

	Speed	Date
Peak gust	103.6 meters per second (231 miles per hour)	12 April 1934.
Highest 5-minute average	84.2 m/s (188 mph)	12 April 1934.
Highest 24-hr average	57.2 m/s (128 mph)	11 & 12 April 1934.
Highest monthly average	31.1 m/s (70 mph)	February 1939.
Highest annual average	15.6 m/s (35 mph)	1934 and 1983.

The National Weather Service reported a wind gust of 236 miles per hour on Guam on 17 December 1997. That is the highest non-tornado wind speed yet recorded.

Wind speeds in tornadoes

Two independent analyses of a tornado in Xenia, Ohio in the 1970s concluded that the peak wind speed at an altitude of 50 meters was around 115 meters per second (256 miles per hour).

On May 3, 1999, a portable doppler radar measured a wind speed of 318 ± 10 miles per hour at a height of 175 feet in a tornado on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.