The Wind Forecast Group  

is the forecast surface wind direction, speed, and gust group.

ddd is the forecast true wind direction (direction from which the wind is blowing) to the nearest 10 degrees. In the case of a variable wind direction, the prevailing direction is encoded for ddd and the limits of the variability should be appended in the remarks section; for example WND 270 V350. In certain situations the prevail-ing cases, VRB may be encoded in place of ddd. In this case, VRB means variable or from any direction between 001 to 360 within a short period of time. If you expect light winds from 0 to 5 knots from generally a westerly direction, but the prevailing direction is difficult to predict, the proper entry is 27003 with a remark WND 180V360, not VRB03. The term 000 should never be used as a direction when there is any wind. Due north is referred to as 360. Encode 000 for the direction only when the wind is calm, in which case the group would read 00000.  

is the forecast mean wind speed in whole knots. When the wind speed is forecast to exceed 99 knots, three digits are encoded, such as 121 for 121 knots.

is the forecast maximum wind speed or maximum gust speed in whole knots and is a mandatory entry when the mean wind speed exceeds 10 knots and the maximum wind speed or gust is 5 knots or more than the mean speed. This entry also may be encoded as three digits when greater than 99 knots. When forecasting the maximum thunderstorm gusts, or any other condition where the gust direction can be forecast, report the gust direction in the remarks section.

For example, if we forecast a thunderstorm maximum gust direction of 250 degrees, we would use the remark GUST DRCTN 250.

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