DIRECTIONAL MODELING OF EXTREME WIND SPEEDS

Extreme value models play an important role in assessing the risk to b uildings caused by high wind speeds. However, standard procedures take no account of the directional behaviour of the wind. In this paper th e extremal properties of the wind process are modelled as a function o f direction. This requires the adaptation of techniques which have rec ently been developed for the study of spatial extremes. In particular, fitting techniques are required which account for dependence across d irections, and, for joint probability statements, a model for the depe ndence itself is required.