gale force

alternative gale-force · alternative galeforce

1. uncountableclimatologyOf a wind, having the speed and strength of a gale.

   By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.

   1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137