WIND

Things you never knew about... WIND

A gale is officially defined as a wind of between 32 and 63 miles per hour. A wind blowing from 4 to 31 miles per hour is a breeze.

The strongest winds in the solar system are on Saturn where they reach speeds of over 1100 miles per hour.

The first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power was in Kincardineshire in Scotland in 1887.

The tips of the blades of wind turbines move at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.

Early wind turbines all turned anti-clockwise as viewed from the front. Since 1978 changes in design mean they all turn clockwise.

The doldrums is a wind free area around the equator where sailing ships used to get stuck for weeks, hence the phrase 'in the doldrums'.