Name ways you can...?

Question

Measure wind speed and determine the direction it is flowing FROM. Thank you.

Answer 1

Several are listed and described here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemometer

Sonic anemometers are pretty clever... wind direction and speed from the same instrument! Not cheap tho.

Hot-wire anemometers are ... "hot", but they can't give wind  direction.

Answer 2

There are many ways in which wind speed is measured.

One is to use a properly calibrated electro-mechanical wind guage, which is usually like four wind scoops rotated by the wind in a horizontal plane, or like a swivelling propeller standing upright in a vertical plane, and linked to some sort of graphical recording device. Another is by observing the effect that the wind has on the environment. For example, the effect the wind has on the sea surface, or the surface of large lakes, or the effect of the wind on trees, desert sand, standing grain, rising smoke, and clouds.

Finding wind direction is simpler. One can use a simple swivelling wind vane, or the propeller already mentioned, but the simplest way is to thoroughly wet the index finger and hold it upright in the air stream. Whichever side of the finger cools fastest is in the direction from which the wind is coming.

Answer 3

Weather observers use an anemometer with rotating cups and a vane.

Aircraft use static air pressure to measure their air speed.

There is an international system to estimate wind speed by observing the effects on land or sea known as the Beaufort Scale.

The wet finger works good but it is easier just to face into the wind, your eyes are very sensitive to wind, the direction you are facing is the direction the wind is coming from.