Unpopular opinion: my $60 wind meter has kept me off the ground more than any load chart
Bought a handheld anemometer about 8 years back for maybe 60 bucks, which felt dumb at the time since the site weather guy already calls wind for us. Fast forward to a job in Reno last spring, I'm booming out with a bundle of steel and the little thing is reading 19 steady with gusts pushing 26, while the ground says it's fine. I radio down and we hold, 20 minutes later it's blowing hard enough that the taglines are whipping, and the guy who called it fine admits he was reading a flag on a pole behind a building. The chart tells you what the crane can handle, it doesn't tell you what's actually happening 120 feet up where you're sitting. What do you all use to check wind up there besides your ears?
That "flag on a pole behind a building" thing gets so many guys. I clip a little kite wind gauge to my hard hat strap and it's saved me twice when the ground swore it was calm.