On Sep 9, 8:52 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
We were flying into Prairie du Chien, WI (PDC) today, for brunch at
the casino after picking up our son's girlfriend in Davenport, IA
(DVN) for her very first airplane ride, ever, and I was taxiing out
for departure, when PDC's AWOS reported this somewhat bizarre wind
reading.

That's a new record for us, as I believe the minimum airspeed
registered by an AWOS is 3 knots -- but with gusts to 18? We
actually both did a "Say what?" into the intercom, and we listened to
the whole thing again. Then, within a minute, the AWOS was reporting
"Winds calm", which just made the report even more unusual.

Jay,

It could have been a dust devil that hit the AWOS. It's easy to have
an 18mph gust inside a dust devil while the actual winds are only 3
knots... dust devils form best in light winds since thermals have a
change to build up more.

Dean