Thinking about it better...
In the USA wind speed is always given in miles-per-hour, mph. Even tornados which blow in over Florida, and through New Orleans, are reported on TV in mph, "wind speeds over 250 mph".
They might even mention the storm as a "category 4", but I don't know what the category is.
I think they do it because people can relate to mph. They know their cars go from 0-60 in just under 10 seconds, the speed-limit is 70 mph on the interstate...
Joe
Another thing you hear alot in the USA is "wind-chill factor" and "heat-index". Both are supposed to measure how the temperature feels on the skin, but the real reason is that the TV can make the weather into a media event, sell advertising, by announcing, "It was 45 degrees below zero in Cleveland yesterday" (that's -40 degrees celsius) when the real temperature was around 0 (about -15 celsius) and there was a wind blowing in from Canada of about "15 mph".
Same thing happens in the summer. It may be hot, 85 F, but with the humidity, the heat-index is reported as "140".
"32 people died in Chicago yesterday because of the high temperatures," mostly elderly, of course.
