Wind Measurements in a Pine Forest During a Destructive Gale

Anemometer readings were recorded during a gale which blew downsome of the trees in an even-aged 16 m stand of Pinus sylvestrison sandy soil at Thetford forest. Gusts at the top of the canopyattained 17•5 m/sec. Wind profiles agreed well with thetheoretical logarithmic profile above the canopy and the exponentialprofile below. During the gale the zero plane displacement androughness length values were similar to those at lower windspeeds. It is therefore possible to estimate wind profiles andthe forces to which a tree in the crop is subjected from measurementsof wind speed at a single point within or above the forest.The wind speeds which blew trees down were much lower than thosepredicted as necessary from ‘tree pulling’ studiesin the same forest. This discrepancy suggests that any considerationof windthrow must take into account the effects of tree vibrationon the deterioration in the strength of the root-soil complex.