Fearthegrimp

I'm a bone fide novice at all this weather malarkey and was wondering what actually causes gusts that are substantially higher than the sustained wind speed?

Fellow weatherites, newbie here. I come in peace and in search of knowledge. I realise there are a lot of coldies out there who yearn for blizzards, snow drifts and ice days. We all know the classic years, but which were the mildest winters in terms of CET and how mild were they? Have we ever had a dry and mild winter?