Q 01/05

Which planet has the strongest sustained winds in the Solar System, blowing as fast as 2,100 km/h?

A) Jupiter

B) Neptune

C) Venus

D) Uranus

Answer · why

B) Neptune

Neptune drives its storms at up to 2,100 km/h despite getting very little sunlight. Heat from inside the planet is enough to power the fastest planeta...

Q 02/05

Which peak in the northeastern United States clocked a 231 mph wind in 1934, a world record for six decades?

A) Mount Washington

B) Whiteface Mountain

C) Mount Katahdin

D) Mount Marcy

Answer · why

A) Mount Washington

Mount Washington's summit observatory logged the gust on April 12, 1934, and hurricane-force gusts still hit the New Hampshire peak on about 110 days ...

Q 03/05

Which Japanese word meaning 'divine wind' named the typhoons said to have wrecked Kublai Khan's invasion fleets?

A) Tsunami

B) Harakiri

C) Kamikaze

D) Bushido

Answer · why

C) Kamikaze

Kamikaze storms hit in 1274 and 1281, scattering Mongol fleets that greatly outnumbered Japan's defenders. Historians still dispute how big those flee...

Q 04/05

Which continent is the windiest on Earth, home to a bay where winds regularly exceed 240 km/h?

A) Eurasia

B) Oceania

C) North America

D) Antarctica

Answer · why

D) Antarctica

Antarctica is the windiest continent because cold, dense air slides down its ice sheet to the coast, which makes Commonwealth Bay the windiest place o...

Q 05/05

Which wind scale, running from 0 for calm to 12 for hurricane force, is named after a Royal Navy officer?

A) Beaufort

B) Fujita

C) Richter

D) Fahrenheit

Answer · why

A) Beaufort

Beaufort drew up the scale in 1805 without any wind speeds: each level described what the wind did to the sails of a frigate.