Wind Code Group 9900: What Does It Actually Mean?

What does wind code group 9900 mean?

a) Calm, no significant wind b) Hurricane-force winds c) Tornado warning d) Wind measurement error

Answer: Hurricane-force winds

Answer:

Wind code group 9900 is not a standard meteorological code but in weather observation coding, '9900' usually means a wind measurement error or calm, no significant wind.

Explanation:

The term wind code group 9900 is not a standard code used in meteorology. However, in the context of weather observation codes such as METAR, a wind group consisting of '99' followed by two '00' would typically indicate a wind measurement error or that the wind is calm or not significant enough to report. This would be because METAR wind codes normally provide wind direction in degrees and speed in knots, and '00' or '0000' would often mean calm or no significant winds.

When assessing wind conditions on the Beaufort Scale, for example, a calm condition, represented by '0', would indicate no wind is present. Contrastingly, weather phenomena like hurricane-force winds and tornado warnings are categorized based on their intensity, using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale for hurricanes, and the Enhanced Fujita Scale for tornadoes, which provide ranges of wind speeds associated with these events. Neither of these scales uses the '9900' code.