What is wind?
Wind is the movement of the air that you breathe from one location to another. The movement of this air is caused by the uneven heating up of the Earths surface.

As the Suns rays hit the Earths surface the land mass heats up, as does the atmosphere above the Earth. This heating up of the Earths surface is different in every location on the planet due to Cloud cover, Night and Day, Seasons etc to name a few.

This heating causes warm air to rise as it weighs less than the cold air (Which is why a hot air balloon rises), as this warm air moves up it causes the cold air to take its place. This air which moves from one place to another is what we feel as wind. The greater the temperature change the greater the wind speed.

In addition to heat, the rotation of the Earth also plays its part, with an

effect called the Coriolis force. And just to give you another snippet of information, Air moves from high pressure zones to low pressure zones.

The Beaufort Scale of Wind Force was developed in 1805 by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort as a means for sailors to gauge wind speeds through visual observations of the sea state. Land based equivalent observations were added later on. The scale runs from force 0 (calm) to force 12 (Hurricane). I have included this on this page details of the land based Beaufort scale.
If the wind get as strong as force 5 - 7 then the Met Office may issue a wind warning. To see present wind conditions click on Summary.