How do we know?
↻ One of the pages with a moving picture
A wind meter on a mountain clicked, and people timed the clicks.
- On a sunny day, the land heats up faster than the water. The air above the land gets warm.
- Warm air is lighter, so it rises. That leaves lower air pressure near the ground.
- Cooler air from over the sea rushes in to fill the gap. That rushing air is wind: a sea breeze!
- Up high, the air flows back out over the sea, cools and sinks. Then the loop starts again.
On Mount Washington in 1934, the wind meter, or anemometer, sent out clicks. Observers timed three clicks with a stopwatch and did the math. They even went out in 150 mph winds to chip ice off it!
That day a gust of 231 mph blew, and it stayed the world record for over 60 years.
Sea breezes can make storms. On sunny days in Florida, thunderstorms often pop up where the sea breeze pushes inland.
Wow number
253 mph is the fastest wind gust ever measured outside a tornado. It blew on Barrow Island, Australia, during a cyclone in 1996.
Myth or fact?
A north wind blows toward the north. Myth. Winds are named for where they come from.
At night, a beach breeze can flip and blow out to sea. Fact. That’s called a land breeze.
Think about it
Why do you think a beach is often breezier on a hot afternoon than early in the morning?
Where in the world?
Mount Washington, New Hampshire, USA where a gust of 231 mph blew on 12 April 1934. It stayed the world record for over 60 years. In Florida, thunderstorms often pop up where the sea breeze pushes inland — 44.2706° N, 71.3033° W.
Where these facts come from
Every number on page 36, and who measured it
This page tells us that land heats up faster than water.
NDBC - Science Education - What are sea breezes and why do they occur? - Answer — NOAA's National Data Buoy Center, which runs weather buoys at sea
ndbc.noaa.gov/education/seabreeze_ans.shtml
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page explains the sea-breeze loop, the land breeze and Florida's sea-breeze storms.
The Sea Breeze — NOAA, the U.S. weather and ocean agency
noaa.gov/jetstream/ocean/sea-breeze
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page explains wind and low pressure.
What is wind? — The Royal Meteorological Society, a big group of weather scientists in the United Kingdom
rmets.org/metmatters/what-wind
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This official world-records table lists the 253 mph gust on Barrow Island.
The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations' weather agency, which keeps the official world weather records
wmo.int/sites/default/files/2025-07/Table_Records_25Jul2025.pdf
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells the story of the 231 mph Big Wind of 1934.
Remembering the Big Wind — The Mount Washington Observatory, the weather station on top of Mount Washington
mountwashington.org/remembering-the-big-wind
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us winds are named for where they blow from.
NOAA's National Weather Service - Glossary — The U.S. National Weather Service
forecast.weather.gov/glossary.php?word=wind+direction
We checked it on 31 October 2026
Has this changed?
Why wind blows is not going to change.
Wind records can be beaten. The fastest gusts on this page are the fastest measured so far.
Words from this page
- air pressure
- How hard the air presses down. Air moves from places with more pressure to places with less.
- anemometer
- A wind meter.
- land breeze
- A night breeze that blows from the land out to the sea.
Try it!
Make a wind detector.
1. Tape a thin strip of tissue paper to the end of a pencil. 2. Hold it up outside or by an open window. 3. Watch which way the strip streams.
What happens: the strip points away from where the wind is coming from. Now you can name the wind!
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