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Beaufort Scale

Filed in Notes, Maths on March 4th 06 .

I once heard the Beaufort Scale rendered as epic poetry. The reader started in a quiet conversational tone, speaking fairly quickly. As he ascended the scale, the voice grew louder and the pace slowed. The word ‘HURRICANE’ was bellowed at considerable volume.

The table below was copied from a notebook entry made one foul day in Whitby, and is placed here in honour of the Mersey Ferry – the Liverpool floating stage has sunk owing to unusually low tides and bad weather. I can remember a storm in the late 70s that sunk a newly constructed landing stage on the Liverpool side. At the time reports suggested that the heavy concrete structure retained by hinged booms had a resonant frequency close to the swell encountered in the storm.

Scale Knots Description
0 Calm
Under 1		 Smooth glassy sea
1 Light
2		 Small scale-like ripples without crests
2 Light
5		 Small waves, still short and smooth but more pronounced
3 Light
8		 Whitecaps forming but still mostly smooth. Occasional white foam appearing
4 Moderate
13		 Waves still small but longer whitecaps fairly general
5 Fresh
18		 Moderate sized waves now long and more pronounced. Whitecaps everywhere, occasional foaming spray
6 Strong
24		 Formation of larger waves. Crests break and leave areas of white foam, some spray
7 Strong
30		 Sea heaps up. Long streaks of foam begin to form along wind direction. More spray (difficulty walking against wind)
8 Gale
37		 Large waves with very long crests, spray blown off wave crests. Long thick streaks of foam (walking progress considerably impeded)
9 Severe gale
44		 Mountainous seas. Dens streaks of foam along direction of wind. Wave crests begin to topple and roll over. Spray may affect visibility
10 Storm
52		 Towering, tumbling waves with long overhanging crests. Sea white with foam. Visibility restricted by spray
11 Violent storm
60		 Extremely mountainous sea, white and foaming. Drastically reduced visibility
12 Hurricane
68+		 Air filled with driving foam and spray as wave crests are torn off by wind. Sea completely white and frothy. Visibility very difficult

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© Content Keith Burnett, 2006. This old school table-based layout was devised to support a Web authoring module. Mind you, it loads quicker than Kubrick in Safari...