The answer to that question is best answered when we look at different places. Wind on the surface of Earth is quite different to up in the Sky and even on different planets.
On the surface of the Earth the record is 372 km per hour which is pretty fast when you consider the average cyclone that we have here in Australia is about 150 to 200 km per hour.
As you go higher in the sky, the wind speeds become less as the air thins out.
But if you were crazy enough to find yourself on the planet Neptune, you would find yourself in windstorms close to 2100 km per hour. I reccon that’d mess up your hair!
Mick’s right with speeds etc but I wanted to add it’s powerful enough to harness the energy through wind farms. South Australia produces about 25% or so of it’s power from wind and just broke a record last month where 40% of the state’s power came from wind. In fact, wind farms is Aus produced enough power last month to provide electricity to over 150000 homes for a year. http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/18778567/australia-breaks-wind-power-record/
Wind is a really interesting topic and depending on how you define “powerful”, the answer to your question might be different.
Mick’s covered speeds.
There’s more information about measuring the strength of wind and the classification scales used here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind
When I think of the power of wind, I also think of it as a cause of erosion. I’ve seen some amazing rock formations caused by powerful winds. Maybe check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_processes if this interests you too 🙂
The answer to that question is best answered when we look at different places. Wind on the surface of Earth is quite different to up in the Sky and even on different planets.
On the surface of the Earth the record is 372 km per hour which is pretty fast when you consider the average cyclone that we have here in Australia is about 150 to 200 km per hour.
As you go higher in the sky, the wind speeds become less as the air thins out.
But if you were crazy enough to find yourself on the planet Neptune, you would find yourself in windstorms close to 2100 km per hour. I reccon that’d mess up your hair!
0
Mick’s right with speeds etc but I wanted to add it’s powerful enough to harness the energy through wind farms. South Australia produces about 25% or so of it’s power from wind and just broke a record last month where 40% of the state’s power came from wind. In fact, wind farms is Aus produced enough power last month to provide electricity to over 150000 homes for a year.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/18778567/australia-breaks-wind-power-record/
0
Wind is a really interesting topic and depending on how you define “powerful”, the answer to your question might be different.
Mick’s covered speeds.
There’s more information about measuring the strength of wind and the classification scales used here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind
When I think of the power of wind, I also think of it as a cause of erosion. I’ve seen some amazing rock formations caused by powerful winds. Maybe check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_processes if this interests you too 🙂
0