Thursday, February 4, 2010

HOW ROUGH IS THE OCEAN? ASK BEAUFORT


There is a scale that allows you to figure out – if the experience alone of turning green and watching women and children go over the side is not enough – how calm or really rough the ocean is. It was contrived many years ago in 1805 by Commander Francis Beaufort, Royal Navy, who decided to set standards of wind force at sea. He designed this scale at a time when no one had any ability to measure wind speeds in the ocean, so the based his measure on how the sea looked and how it affected ships. It’s been improved over the years and it runs from 0 to 17, the worst being a hurricane. I’ve enclosed the chart and you can click on it or copy it if you want to impress your friends with the Beaufort scale like an old whaler or sealer. JPF

No comments:

Post a Comment