Abstract The wind speed profile for the neutral boundary layer is derived for a number of mixing-length parameterizations, which account for the height of the boundary layer. The wind speed profiles show good agreement with the reanalysis of the Leipzig wind profile (950 m high) and with combined cup–sonic anemometer and lidar measurements (300 m high) performed over flat and homogeneous terrain at Høvsøre, Denmark. In the surface layer, the mixing-length parameterizations agree well with the traditional surface-layer theory, but the wind speed profile is underestimated when the surface-layer scaling is extended to the entire boundary layer, demonstrating the importance of the boundary layer height as a scaling parameter. The turbulence measurements, performed up to 160-m height only at the Høvsøre site, provide the opportunity to derive the spectral-length scales from two spectral models. Good agreement is found between the behaviors of the mixing- and spectral-length scales.