Most of us have experienced that eerie silence before a storm. Some folks have called this the calm before the storm. This can be produced by descending air located on the boundaries of localized storms. But quite often the opposite is true and the wind speed will increase as the storm approaches. Why the difference? The key is in the overall weather pattern. If this is a large scale storm, quite often these storms may be preceded by an area of high pressure. We know that the center of high pressure is dominated by very little wind. It should be noted that “calm” is the absence of apparent motion of the air. And calm wind is reported if there is a wind speed of less than 2 mph during a two minute time period.
