Public Lab Research note

Beaufort Wind Scale Comic, 1906

mathew was awarded the Excessive Enthusiasm Barnstar by Bronwen for their work in this research note.

The Beaufort Scale is a means of measuring wind speed by visual inspection of indirect factors like rustling leaves or waves on water. I think its a useful means of assessing flight safety in the field.

The British National Meteorological Library and Archive published an excellent history and overview of the development of the Beaufort Scale, and in the back was a comic, drawn in 1906 by George Simpson, an explorer and meteorologist who extended the Beaufort Scale from observations at sea to observations on land. The comic is great. I cleaned it up so that it would display better and could be used as a print handout:

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4 Comments

@donblair and @mathew !!! Best Barnraising dramatic reading ever.

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@Bronwen awards a barnstar to mathew for their awesome contribution!

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Great post !

For a history of old wind patterns: https://www.oldweather.org/

How citizen scientists are helping build weather pattern benchmarks for studying climate change: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/collaborate/noaa-old-weather

And just for fun, a map for tracking where your boat is right now: https://www.shipmap.org/

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Courtesy of this terrible Hurricane Season 2017, here's the wind speed categories for hurricanes, as told through cats, for your enjoyment:

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