The design and performance of a two-component drag force anemometer is discussed. The device utilizes semiconductor strain gages to produce full scale voltage outputs as large as 2.5 V without amplification. A novel method for obtaining wind bearing as well as velocity magnitude is presented. The most useful feature may be the very fast response to wind transients. Rise and decay time constants of the order of 10 m- sec can be achieved with the aid of electrical filtering. Such drag force sensors can measure dynamic pressure and kinetic energy linearly or can be temperature compensated to measure velocity squared by correcting for the dependence of air density on temperature.