"The odd thing about wind, totally mysterious to me, is that its force increases at a much faster rate than its speed.

Maybe somebody can help me out with specifics, but a 100 mph wind, say, is many times (eight times?) more forceful (and potentially destructive) than a 50 mph wind. "

Thats because as soon as wind hits turbulent flow around your tent drag goes up as a square of the velocity (which means if 50 mph is turbulent, 100mph creates 4x drag)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%28physics%29#Drag_at_high_velocity