This paper presents an extensive analysis of the short term, unsteady wind loading on a low-rise building. The building is located in a rural environment and only the specific situation of wind flow orthogonal to the long face of the structure is considered. The data is analysed using conventional analysis and less traditional methods such as conditional sampling and wavelet analysis. The nature of the flow field over the building is found to be highly unsteady and complex. Fluctuating pressures on the windward wall are shown to a large extent to be caused by the fluctuations in the upstream flow, whereas extreme pressures on the roof are as a result of high intensity small scale flow structures. On the roof of the building a significant amount of energy is shown to exist at frequencies above 1 Hz.