Crane Wind Speed Limits: What OSHA Requires and How to Enforce It

Crane wind speed limits are the one operating rule that gets debated on the jobsite instead of decided in the office. A general contractor wants one more pick before the front comes through. The operator is watching the load start to sail. Somebody says twenty miles an hour is fine, somebody else says the chart cuts off at twenty. Nobody has the manufacturer's number in front of them, and the call gets made on gut feel.

That is the problem worth fixing. Not the weather. The decision process around the weather. This is a walkthrough of what OSHA actually requires on wind, why your load chart is not answering the question you think it is answering, and how to build a wind policy your crew can execute without calling you.

What OSHA actually requires on crane wind speed limits

There is no single federal number. OSHA does not publish a national crane wind speed limit of 20 mph, 25 mph, or anything else. People repeat those figures because they appear on specific manufacturer charts, not because they appear in the regulation.

What OSHA does in 29 CFR 1926 Subpart CC is push the number back onto the manufacturer and onto your competent person. Three provisions carry the weight:

• 1926.1417(a) requires the employer to comply with all manufacturer procedures applicable to the operational functions of the equipment, including its use with attachments. If Grove, Link-Belt, Liebherr, Tadano, Manitowoc, or Kobelco published a wind limit or a derating table for that configuration, that document is the rule you are held to.
• 1926.1417(n) requires the competent person to adjust the equipment and the operations to address the effect of wind, ice, and snow on equipment stability and rated capacity. This is an affirmative duty. Somebody on your crew is supposed to be making that call, by name, on that lift.
• 1926.1417(h) covers storm warnings. When a local storm warning has been issued, the competent person must determine whether it is necessary to implement the manufacturer's recommendations for securing the equipment.

Read those together and the shape of the requirement is clear. OSHA is not going to hand you a number. OSHA is going to ask who your competent person was, what number they used, where that number came from, and what they did when the wind got there.

Source: OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1417, Operation.

Why your load chart is not a wind chart

Here is the part that catches good operators. Rated capacities on a standard load chart are calculated under still air. They assume no meaningful wind load on the boom or on the suspended load. Wind does two things that the chart never accounted for.

First, it puts lateral force on the boom itself. A long boom at high angle is a sail. Second, it puts force on the load, and a load with a large surface area catches far more wind than its weight suggests. A four thousand pound panel and a four thousand pound coil of pipe behave nothing alike at 22 mph.

That is why manufacturers publish separate wind guidance, and why that guidance is often expressed two ways: a maximum permissible wind speed, and a derating percentage above a certain speed. Some charts cut capacity as wind climbs. Some prohibit specific configurations entirely. Some address long-boom and luffing-jib work separately from short-boom work, because the exposure is not the same.

1926.1417(c)(1) requires that rated capacities, recommended operating speeds, special hazard warnings, instructions, and the operator's manual be readily available in the cab at all times for the operator's use. If your wind and derating information lives in a binder in the shop, or in a manual that went missing two owners ago, you have a documentation problem before you have a weather problem.

And 1926.1417(o)(1) is blunt: the equipment must not be operated in excess of its rated capacity. If wind has derated the crane, the derated number is now the rated capacity for that lift.

How to set crane wind speed limits your crew can actually use

A wind policy that says "use good judgment" is not a policy. It is an invitation for the newest person on site to make the most expensive decision of the day. Here is a structure that works for a small to mid-size fleet.

1. Pull the real number for every crane you own

Go machine by machine. For each unit, find the manufacturer's maximum permissible wind speed and any derating table, by configuration. Long boom with jib is usually a different number than short boom on outriggers. Write it down per configuration, not per crane. Where the manual is silent, 1926.1417(b) requires the employer to develop the necessary procedures, and procedures related to capacity have to be developed and signed by a registered professional engineer familiar with the equipment. That is not a paperwork technicality. That is a real cost you should budget for on any machine with a missing manual.

2. Set a stop number and a watch number

One number is not enough because crews need warning before the hard stop. Give them two. The stop number is the manufacturer's limit for that configuration. The watch number sits several miles per hour below it, and it triggers action: reduce radius, lower the boom, get the tag lines tight, finish the current pick and set the load down. By the time you are at the stop number, the crew should already be securing, not starting a conversation.

3. Measure wind where the load is, not where you are standing

Ground-level wind at the tailgate meeting is not the wind at 140 feet. Wind speed increases with height, and site conditions like building corners and open water make it worse. A handheld anemometer at grade is better than nothing and worse than most people believe. If you run tall configurations regularly, an anemometer mounted at or near the boom tip with a cab readout is the honest answer. Pair it with the National Weather Service forecast for gust potential, because sustained wind is not what tips cranes. Gusts are.

4. Name the competent person on the ticket

1926.1417(n) puts this duty on a competent person. Make that a name on the field ticket for every lift, not a title floating in a safety manual. When an inspector asks who made the wind call on the September pick at the hospital job, you want to point at a record, not at a memory.

The documentation is what turns a good call into a defensible one

Most crane companies make the right wind decision and then fail to prove it. The lift got stopped, the crew went home, and nothing was written down. Six months later there is a delay claim from the general contractor or an inspection following an unrelated incident, and there is no record that anybody evaluated anything.

What a defensible wind record looks like:

• Date, time, job, crane unit number, and configuration
• The manufacturer's limit and derating figure used for that configuration
• Measured wind speed, gust speed, and where it was measured
• The competent person's name and the decision they made: proceed, derate, or stop
• What was done to secure the equipment if operations stopped
• Any communication to the general contractor about the stoppage

That last one matters more than owners expect. A documented, time-stamped notice to the general contractor that operations were suspended for wind is the difference between a weather delay and a performance dispute.

What a wind stop costs when the paperwork is missing

OSHA's 2026 civil penalty amounts carried over from 2025 with no inflation adjustment, because the October 2025 CPI-U data was not produced. The maximums for calendar year 2026 are $16,550 per serious violation and $165,514 per willful or repeat violation, with a statutory minimum of $11,823 on a willful. Failure to abate runs $16,550 per day past the abatement date.

Source: OSHA memorandum, 2026 Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties, May 21, 2026.

The fine is rarely the largest number. A willful classification follows you into your next insurance renewal, into general contractor prequalification packets, and into any litigation that touches that job. A crane company with a clean, boring, well-documented wind policy prices differently than one without.

Running wind limits without a phone tree

The operational failure is almost never that the owner does not know the rule. It is that the rule lives in the owner's head, and every borderline day turns into three phone calls from three jobsites while he is trying to eat lunch.

CraneOp puts the configuration-specific wind limit and derating figure on the same screen as the lift, so the operator sees the number for the crane he is actually sitting in before the pick starts. The wind decision, the measured speed, and the competent person's name get captured on the field ticket the crew is already filling out, which means the record exists without anybody writing a second document. If a lift gets stopped, the notice to the general contractor goes out from the same record.

The owner stops being the wind hotline. The crew stops guessing. The file builds itself.

Frequently asked questions about crane wind speed limits

Does OSHA specify a maximum wind speed for crane operations?

No. OSHA does not publish a single numeric wind limit for mobile cranes. 1926.1417(a) requires you to follow the manufacturer's procedures, and 1926.1417(n) requires a competent person to adjust the equipment and operations for the effect of wind on stability and rated capacity. The number comes from your manufacturer's documentation for that machine in that configuration.

Where do I find the wind limit for my crane?

The operator's manual and the load chart documentation for that specific model and configuration. Look for a maximum permissible wind speed and any derating table tied to wind. If the documentation does not address wind, 1926.1417(b) requires the employer to develop the procedures, and anything touching capacity must be developed and signed by a registered professional engineer familiar with the equipment.

Does wind speed change the rated capacity on the load chart?

It can, and many manufacturers say so directly through derating tables. Standard load chart capacities are calculated without meaningful wind loading. Wind adds lateral force to both the boom and the suspended load, and large surface-area loads catch far more wind than their weight would suggest. When a derate applies, the derated figure becomes the capacity you must stay under per 1926.1417(o)(1).

What does OSHA require when a storm warning is issued?

Under 1926.1417(h), when a local storm warning has been issued, the competent person must determine whether it is necessary to implement the manufacturer's recommendations for securing the equipment. That determination is a decision somebody has to make and, practically speaking, should document.

Should we measure wind at the ground or at the boom tip?

The number that matters is the wind acting on the boom and the load, which is higher than what you feel at grade. A handheld anemometer at ground level is a starting point. For tall configurations, an anemometer at or near the boom tip with a cab readout gives the operator the number he actually needs. Gusts, not sustained wind, are what put cranes over, so watch the forecast gust potential alongside the live reading.

Get the wind rule out of your head

Every crane in your yard has a wind number, and right now it probably lives in a manual nobody has opened since the machine was delivered. Getting those numbers onto the lift, in front of the operator, with the decision captured automatically, is a two-week project that pays off the first time a general contractor pushes for one more pick.

If you want to see what that looks like running on your fleet, book a walkthrough at craneop.net.