In this work we study different techniques to estimate basic properties of turbulence, that is its characteristic velocity and length scale from low-resolution data. The methods are based on statistics of the signals like the velocity spectra, second-order structure function, number of signal’s zero-crossings and the variance of velocity derivative. First, in depth analysis of estimates from artificial velocity time series is performed. Errors due to finite averaging window, finite cut-off frequencies and different fitting ranges are discussed. Next, real atmospheric measurement data are studied. It is demonstrated that differences between results of the methods can indicate deviations from the Kolmogorov’s theory or the presence of external intermittency, that is the existence of alternating laminar/turbulent flow patches.