KWSC News Articles

Sail in Stunning Northumberland

It would seem that your browser has Javascript disabled or does not suport Javascript. Without Javascript you will not see changes of images here as you move around the site. In future versions of this site it will also prevent you taking advantage of some of the features to change the way you view this site.

KWSC News Articles

News Article Archive.............

All news articles, including our archive of articles, submitted by our members are retained on the site. You can access the full list of articles from here.

PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT FOR OLDER ARTICLES THE INFORMATION MAY NO LONGER BE ACCURATE OR FULLY RELEVANT.

(Article from March 2004)

Weather

In this edition we look at the Beaufort Scale. Do any of you have weather articles or suggestions for future editions?

Created by Admiral Beaufort, the scale , from 0 to 12, indicates the force of the wind. 0 is flat calm (a smooth mirror like sea) and 12 is a hurricane force with winds greater than 64 knots (spray in the air and visibility seriously affected).

Before Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort devised his scale of wind speeds in 1806 there was no single uniform manner to describe the wind (my description of a gale might be the Commodore's breeze). Beaufort's scale was designed for major ships of the line at the time but has been adapted to be more general in nature and hence is still in use today.

The following table (a copy is on the race map in the club house) helps describe the scale in simple terms for both use at both land and sea.

Beaufort Force	Description	Land Conditions	Sea State	Speed
				knots	km/h	mph
0	Calm	Smoke rises vertically	Sea like a mirror	Less than 1	Less than 1	Less than 1
1	Very Light	Direction of wind shown by smoke drift only	Ripples with appearance of scales, no foam crests	1 - 3	1 - 5	1 - 3
2	Light breeze	Wind felt on face, leaves rustle, vanes moved by wind	Wavelets, small but pronounced. Crests with glassy appearance, but do not break.	4 -6	6 - 11	4 -7
3	Gentle breeze	Leaves and small twigs in constant motion, wind extends light flag	Large wavelets, crests begin to break. Glassy looking foam, occasional white horses.	7 - 10	12 - 19	8 - 12
4	Moderate breeze	Raises dust, loose paper, small branches move	Small waves becoming longer, frequent white horses.	11 - 16	20 - 29	13 - 18
5	Fresh breeze	Small trees in leaf begin to sway	Moderate waves of pronounced long form. Many white horses, some spray.	17 - 21	30 - 39	19 - 24
6	Strong breeze	Large branches in motion, umbrellas used with difficulty	Some large waves, extensive white foam crests, some spray.	22 - 27	40 - 50	25 - 31
7	Near gale	Whole trees in motion, inconvenience felt walking against the wind	Sea heaped up, white foam from breaking waves blowing in streaks with the wind.	28 - 33	51 - 61	32 - 38
8	Gale	Breaks twigs off trees, impedes progress	Moderately high and long waves. Crests break into spin drift, blowing foam in well marked streaks.	34 - 40	62 - 74	39 - 46
9	Strong gale	Slight structural damage occurs	High waves, dense foam streaks in wind, wave crests topple, tumble and roll over. Spray reduces visibility.	41 - 47	75 - 87	47 - 54
10	Storm	Trees uprooted, considerable damage occurs	Very high waves with long overhanging crests. Dense blowing foam, sea surface appears white. Heavy tumbling of sea, shock-like, poor visibility.	48 - 55	88 - 101	55 - 63
11	Violent storm	Widespread damage	Exceptionally high waves, sometimes concealing small and medium sized ships. Sea completely covered with long white patches of foam. Edges of wave crests blown into froth. Poor visibility.	56 - 63	102 - 117	64 - 73
12	Hurricane	Extreme destruction	Air filled with foam and spray, sea white with driving spray, visibility.	>64	>119	>74