Today's kids want to know question is one you might ask if you look out the window. If you see the trees moving, you might wonder how fast the wind's blowing. The way to figure that out is with a tool that can be hard to pronounce. When we asked people in the WMFY News 2 office to pronounce it, some struggled. Others had no problem. Either way, Raina got it right when she asked her question. "Hello, my name is Raina and I was just wondering how an anemometer measures wind speed."
Of course, we turned to Chief meteorologist Grant Gilmore for the explanation.
Wind is a huge factor that determines what type of weather you experience. In many cases it is the wind that ultimately causes damage in severe weather. But, how is the wind speed measured?
Wind speed is measured by using an instrument called an anemometer. There are different types of anemometers, but the most common type of anemometer is called a cup anemometer. The current industry standard cup anemometer consists of three cups that are each mounted to arms that all connect to a vertical shaft.
The wind flow past the cups is picked by the concave side of the cups and turns the entire unit and the shaft which it's revolution speed is proportional to the wind speed. The computer in the anemometer counts the number of revolutions of the shaft over a set period of time and calculates the average wind speed.
WEB EXTRA: Chief Meteorologist Grant Gilmore explains the mathematical calculation behind how the revolutions of the anemometer is used to determine wind speed.
And parents don't forget, we want to hear your child's weather question! Record a video of them asking a question, and email it to us 2wtk@wfmy.com.