A question about wind speeds

A conundrum

This is a bit of a conundrum that needs to be solved but I doubt if anyone will be able to help because most people are "information" -takers, not thinkers.


Every time high winds are reported (as in California) they never come up to what is reported.Neither (in the case of the fires) do I end up hearing reports of very high winds.


Even in the cases of hurricanes Nullschool never has winds anything like what is reported.


And yet, when I reported on a large cyclone in the Arctic some people poo-pooed it because the wind speeds were "insufficient"


However, when I look at the winds Down-Under they seem about right.


How can this be?