International scales describing the intensity of tornadoes are investigated along with reports from the Polish Government Security Centre on all types of wind storms in Poland. Then, collected tornado reports for the years 1899–2019 in Poland, a set of the annual maximum gust wind speeds measured at 39 meteorological stations from 1971 to 2005 (35 years), descriptions of Poland’s strongest wind storms in the 21st century, estimating the risk of significant strong and extreme winds in Poland, and classification of maximum wind speeds by Lorenc (2012) are presented. Based on these data, i.e. measured and estimated wind speeds, this paper proposes two separate intensity scales to categorize synoptic, thunderstorm, and downslope winds (in the Tatra and Karkonosze regions), derechos, tornadoes, and downbursts, i.e. all types of wind storms. These scales are simpler than the one put forward by Lorenc (2012). These two scales cover a range of maximum wind speeds from 20 to 90 m/s. This proposal is only applicable to Poland. Other countries may determine whether it applies to them.