# wind



## zeebo (Nov 15, 2009)

Hello,

I'm in an apartment in Nicosia and thought it was going to blow over last night!! Was there a mini tornado or something? 

At least all the African dust has blown away though and i have my view back ;-)

z


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

zeebo said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm in an apartment in Nicosia and thought it was going to blow over last night!! Was there a mini tornado or something?
> 
> ...


Hi Z,

It was very windy last night. I didn't hear anything about a tornado, but high winds are not uncommon here, in my opinion. In the weather reports instead of giving us wind as miles per hour they say "bofors" whatever that is- I guess so that nobody can figure out how windy it is.


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## kimonas (Jul 19, 2008)

theresoon said:


> Hi Z,
> 
> It was very windy last night. I didn't hear anything about a tornado, but high winds are not uncommon here, in my opinion. In the weather reports instead of giving us wind as miles per hour they say "bofors" whatever that is- I guess so that nobody can figure out how windy it is.


Having witnessed (and driven through) two tornados (one in Larnaca) and one in Strovolos (which is dialect for whirlwind - a clue that high winds are perfectly normal) I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a tornado last night. I did see the cloud base rotating before it got too dark to see, but it probably didn't touch down as there wasn't too much damage as far as I could see this morning, whereas last time a major tornado hit (18th September 2009) there were literally hundreds of uprooted trees, dozens of smashed up cars and bits of roof and debris everywhere and parts of Strovolos resembled a war zone. There was a mini tornado a couple of weekends ago which ripped the concrete roof off an appartment block (in Latsia I think) and totalled a couple of cars parked beneath. And people think it's always sunny in Cyprus!


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## BabsM (May 24, 2008)

theresoon said:


> Hi Z,
> 
> In the weather reports instead of giving us wind as miles per hour they say "bofors" whatever that is- .


It relates to the Beaufort Scale, an accepted way of measuring wind speed/strength that dates back to the 19th Century. The BBC has a good description on their weather centre pages. Tornados are measured on the Fujita scale which relates to how destructive a tornado is. Just do a web search for Beaufort Scale and Fujita Scale if you want to know more


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

BabsM said:


> It relates to the Beaufort Scale, an accepted way of measuring wind speed/strength that dates back to the 19th Century. The BBC has a good description on their weather centre pages. Tornados are measured on the Fujita scale which relates to how destructive a tornado is. Just do a web search for Beaufort Scale and Fujita Scale if you want to know more


Thanks Babs, I will look into that right away.

Dina


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

theresoon said:


> Thanks Babs, I will look into that right away.
> 
> Dina


Very interesting. It goes up to the beginning of hurricane strength winds. Thanks for the spelling too, the way they were pronouncing it I would never have been able to find it. At least now I'll be able to figure out how windy it is.


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