Gust values in latest.csv

In latest.csv there are 4 gust values - 1 min, 10 min, 1 hour and 6 hours. Can anyone explain what these mean? I’ve looked in the documentation and I can’t see any obvious description of these values.

I analysed my latest forecast run and got these maximum values (km/h) for any forecast time in the complete file:

Max 1 Min Gust: 76.3
Max 10 Min Gust: 82.3
Max 1 Hour Gust: 87.3
Max 6 Hour Gust: 92.6

These could mean the highest sustained gust speed in the period, but you would expect those to get lower for a longer period. It also wouldn’t make sense because a gust speed sustained over 10 minutes would be the wind speed, not a gust.

So I assume they are the highest gust speed in the next 1/10 mins or 1/6 hours. However, that doesn’t seem useful because the shortest forecast intervals are 6 and 15 minutes. If you’re running a more common 1 hour or 30 minute forecast then the 6 hour gust speed doesn’t seem useful, and the longest forecast interval is 3 hours, so a 6 hour value covers two of those intervals which again doesn’t seem useful.

If you’re running a 30 minute output forecast (as I do) then none of these values seem to be particularly useful. Highest gust in the output period would be much more useful, because with each output line you get the forecast value for the next period.

Tom clearly includes them in the output to be useful to someone, but as is clear I don’t really know how to make use of them!

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