My problematic tempest unit was replaced due to the WIND_FAILED issues. The replacement unit is not exhibiting those errors any more and the wind speed values are MUCH more plausible than before. I think mine was just a case of bad hardware and WF stood behind their product.
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Garden Hose blast of warm water fixed my crazy high wind, wrong wind direction.
Thank you MiamiWX for the garden hose tip.
Details & 4 photos below,
My 3 year old Tempest station Tempest (click <<< here)
on Oct 3, 2023 , afternoon, went from NNE 4 knots (correct wind) to crazy incorrect SE 35 to 40 knots. I think the incorrect wind direction SE started about 1 pm, and the huge incorrect wind 35 to 40 knots started about 7 pm.
So I found this “Garden Hose” post in the late evening.
Next morning Tempest Help Line reviewed my situation and suggested a Tempest device “off/ on” slider switch reboot, AND, a gentle cleaning of the wind channel with a damp cloth, no soap, no cleaner.
Since reaching the Tempest device is not easy without an extension ladder, I thought I’d reverse the steps and try cleaning first ,since cleaning with a garden hose spray of water was easier, safer, than reaching the Tempest device. Also, if I did both suggested fixes at the same time, and if the Tempest device fixed itself, I wouldn’t really know which of the two suggestions actually fixed the problem (cleaning or reboot.??) .
So I connected two 100 foot garden hoses and hooked into a hot water outside tap. Cold water would have worked too. I found a good spray nozzle to help send a gentle stream of water up to the Tempest device on the flag pole .
Almost immediately the wind speed corrected itself. 
, but wind direction took maybe 5 minutes to correct itself, but slowly direction came around from the incorrect SE , then S, then SW, and finally to the correct WNW. .
Perhaps my garden hose had flushed out a small leaf 
. It’s fall season here in Manitoba Canada, so there are lots of small leaves turning red & yellow and dropping in the area. Yesterday’s wind direction of NNE would have blown small leaves downwind and in line with my Tempest device. The misty precipitation might have allowed the leaf to stick in the wind channel like glue. Next big rain on a NW wind might have flushed out the wind channel too, but the garden hose worked immediately.
30 minutes later, say 12:15 pm, all fixed and wind direction NW and wind speed 12 to 13 knots verified on my hand held anemometer and iPhone compass. 
Conclusion:
No reboot was needed, just a gentle “ flush out” of the wind channel with the garden hose. Don’t even think of using a pressure washer 
.
Hope this long post helps others.
Update:
1 hour later, and my Tempest device is still reporting perfectly, as compared to local Environment Canada weather station, Oak Point Marine.
Regards, Neil M.
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Though the idea sounds nice and has worked for you, based on the direction of water spray and especially from your angle of spray, there is a possibility of water getting into the temp/humidity sensor through the openings in the radiation shield. My suggestion would be to spray water in a horizontal manner or from just above the wind gap area, this will prevent water from getting into the radiation shield and damage the temp/humidity sensor.
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Yes, just like it does when it is raining hard and the wind is also blowing hard. The worst that can happen is the humidity reading is off for a while.
Good point. 
A gentle horizontal flush of water would have been best, but easy, fast & safe access to the Tempest device was the issue.
From camera time stamps and recorded rain fall (actually hose spray) activity , I know I was spraying hose water from 11:26 am to 12:05 pm , say 40 minutes on and off,… mostly trying to get a few good photos of the spraying water for this post. 
In the screen shot below, the two red arrows show the duration of my on & off hose water spraying.
Prior to spraying water the Relative Humidity (RH) was 87% . Maximum RH during the hose water spray period was 96% RH. The hose water definitely affected the humidity sensor.
Screenshot below shows how quickly the humidity sensor dried out and returned to normal readings. I’m seeing 25 to 30 minutes to recover from the blast of hose water. 
I believe this demonstrates the durability of the Tempest device under adverse conditions. 
For comparison, today is a super rainy + windy day and Relative Humidity is 91%.
Update: 20 hours after flushing out the Tempest’s wind gap with garden hose water, both wind speed and wind direction are perfect, compared to local Environment Canada weather station 15 kms (9 miles) to the north. 
Screen shot below shows the air temperature (blue line) during the hose water spraying. Even though I was connected to a hot water tap, the first 200 feet of water inside the hose must have been cold from being outside overnight. There’s a very noticeable decrease in recorded air temperature while I was spraying hose water.
Temperature sensor recovered quickly too, similar to humidity sensor.
Current air temperature of 10.2 oC which is within 0.2 oC of another Tempest station just 300 feet away .
No damage done to either sensor, humidity or temperature.
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I noticed you are using the local Env Canada station to establish some baseline comparison data. Just some clarification for anyone who may be using automated stations from Env Canada to do their comparisons:
The observations from the Env Canada automatic stations are updated once every hour, at the top of the hour. The sustained wind speed and direction are an average of the last 2 minutes before the hour. The wind gust is the peak instantaneous gust recorded in the last 10 minutes before the hour. All the other values, temperature, humidity, pressure, etc, are instantaneous values measured on the hour.
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