History of the peak three-second gust

The usage of the term “3-s gust” is commonplace throughout the wind engineering community. The term generally refers to the peak wind speed measured in some epoch (e.g., 1 ​h) with a specified gust duration – in this case 3 ​s (i.e., peak 3-s gust). There seems to be misconceptions on the origins of the peak 3-s gust amongst members of the engineering community. This historical review provides a general timeline of its usage in the literature and practice, reasons and rationale for the choice and provides thoughts for its use going forward.