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Subject: Re: Silicon Sea: Beaufort Wind Scale
From: Dan Allen (danallen46@XXX.XXX)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 23:32:05 EDT
On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, at 03:00 PM, Robert Eno wrote:
> What is the practical value of the beaufort scale of wind force? Why
> is it
> not sufficient to simply reckon the wind speed in knots and leave it at
> that?
The clever idea behind the Beaufort scale is to have a memorable set of
conditions that usually correspond to a certain wind speed in knots. We
do not all have wind speed indicators around, but we can all look at
conditions
and make a quick informed judgment of conditions if we can use the
indicators
that Beaufort came up with.
We can then report upon conditions with some decent degree of accuracy,
without
measuring instruments, and without distorting the truth. (We all tend
to
exaggerate the size of waves and wind speeds when we are out in a gale
or better.)
Dan
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