Wind speed 3 May 1999 is often quoted as the highest-recorded surface wind speed, although another figure of has also been quoted for the same tornado. Yet another number used by the Center for Severe Weather Research for that measurement is . However, speeds measured by Doppler radar are not considered official records. An anemometer is one of the tools used to measure wind speed. A device consisting of a vertical pillar and three or four concave cups, the anemometer captures the horizontal movement of air particles (wind speed). Another tool used to measure wind velocity includes a GPS combined with pitot
Anemometer past it, but other factors influence the rotational speed, including turbulence produced by the apparatus, increasing drag in opposition to the torque that is produced by the cups and support arms, and friction of the mount point. When Robinson first designed his anemometer, he asserted that the cups moved one-third of the speed of the wind, unaffected by the cup size or arm length. This was apparently confirmed by some early independent experiments, but it was incorrect. Instead, the ratio of the speed of the wind and that of the cups, the "anemometer factor", depends on the dimensions of the