Beaufort Wind Scale, Measuring the Wind

In Greece as well as the rest of Europe the wind in measured with the Beaufort scale.

The Beaufort scale was devised by Francis Beaufort in 1805.
Beaufort was an Irish Naval officer serving on the HMS Woolwich. He later was promoted to rear admiral.
The scale evolved from works  in the previous century, including one by Daniel Defoe.
It was officially adapted by the Royal Navy in the 1830’s and first used on the voyage of the HMS Beagle.
The goal of the scale was to standardize weather observations. At the time there were no standards so one observer might be seeing a stiff breeze and another observing the same condition, calling it a soft breeze.
The original scale had thirteen classes, zero to twelve and did not reference wind speed numbers but related the wind conditions to effects on the sails of a man of war.[ref]Wikipedia –  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale.[/ref]

In the early 1900’s , steam powered ships were rapidly replacing sailing ships so the descriptions were changed to how the sea, not the sails, behaved,  and they extended the scale to include land conditions.  The scale was again extended in 1946 when force 13 to 17 were added but intended to apply to special cases such as tropical cyclones.  Today the extended scale is only used by Taiwan and mainland China.

You can learn more about the scale here:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/guide/beaufortscale.html

Comments Off on Beaufort Wind Scale, Measuring the Wind

Filed under Chronicles

Comments are closed.