Some Aspects of Spatial Extremes

Consider the following problem. The maximum wind speed is recorded hourly at a number of sites in the U.K. From a series of such observations we seek to quantify the extremal behaviour of the wind process at all geographical points in the U.K. One solution to this problem is described by Shellard (1976); this approach forms the basis of the British Standards Institute advice to civil engineers, who use the information as a design parameter for large building construction.