It's not difficult to work out when a wind is due.  If, on the Met Office north Atlantic chart (  http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/surface_pressure.html )  you see a high (anticyclone) out in the Atlantic and a cyclone in the Med, often over Italy, work out the pressure gradiant - the difference between the highest pressure in one and the lowest pressure in the other.  The higher this difference is, and the shorter the distance between the centres of the two indicates the ferocity of the gale.   And the gales won't go until (usually) the cyclone goes off into east Europe.  The High could be almost static for some days.  Also watch the clouds - altocumulus lenticularus (as in latin for 'lens') a.k.a. the space ship cloud - is an indicator of an almost certain gales within 24 hours.  If you're interested have a look at least at the cloudappreciationsociety.org ....then get hooked on meteorology and get a weather station.