Beaufort Scale of Wind Strength

    The Beaufort Scale describes the various wind velocities. It gets its name from a British admiral, Sir Francis Beaufort (1174 - 1857), who created the scale around the year 1805 on the basis of the effect of wind on a sailing ship. Like most sailors he noticed that the various sea states were closely related to the wind strength. But he obviously had a lot of time to observe and think about it!
 
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Force 0 - cool drink and snooze
Force 1 - another cool drink. quiet read
Force 2 - put down glass to hold magazine page
  
  Force 12 - tea may taste a little salty

Beaufort

 Wind term:Sea State wave H in meters knots
Force 0 Calm: sea like a mirror nil <1
Force 1 light air: ripples like scales <0.1 1 - 3
Force 2 light breeze: small wavelets 0.1 - 0.3 4 - 6
Force 3 Gentle breeze: large wavelets, a few whitehorses 0.3 - 0.9 7 - 10
Force 4 Moderate breeze: small waves, frequent white horses 0.9 - 1.5 11 - 16
Force 5 Fresh breeze: moderate waves, many white horses 1.5 - 2.5 17 - 21
Force 6 Strong breeze: large waves, white foam crests 2.5 - 4 22 - 27
Force 7 Near gale: sea heaps up, waves break 4- 6 28 - 33
Force 8 Gale: moderately high waves of greater length beginning to break 6 - 8 34 - 40
Force 9 Severe Gale: high waves breaking, spray 8 - 10 41 - 47
Force 10 Storm: very high waves 10 - 12 48 - 55
Force 11 Violent Storm: extremely high waves, visibility affected 12 - 16 56 - 63
Force 12 Hurricane: nasty >16 64 +
Force 3 - keep an eye on drink and put magazine down perhaps  
  Force 11 - holding mug properly now focusses one's whole attention and chart hard to read anyway Force 4 - drink is slightly awkward, read chart  
  Force 10 - hard to keep mug at lips, some may spill down chin onto remains of chart Force 5 - spill remaining drink, hold chart firmly  
  Force 9 - Mug of hot tea would have been very nice .... Force 6 - cup of hot tea would be nice. Sit on chart.  
 

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 Force 8 - Hot tea in a mug then, if anyone's making one Force 7 - cup slides in saucer. Chart a little damp and stained.    

 

 Some basic conversions to other units of measurement


A calculator to convert wind force measures for you