Strong Wind
If you’ve been checking in with Skipper Wilson over on sitesALIVE!, you know that the storms predicted for last week brought very strong winds with them. How much wind are we talking about, though?
Wind speed is measured on what’s called a Beaufort Scale. This is what you might experience if you were in a place with different speeds of wind:
| Beaufort Number | Wind Speed (in miles per hour) | Description | Conditions You’d See on Land |
| 0 | Less than 1 | Calm | Smoke from a chimney rises straight up in the air. |
| 1 | 1-3 | Light Air | Smoke from a chimney drifts. |
| 2 | 4-7 | Light Breeze | Leaves rustle. Weather vanes shift. You can just feel the wind on bare skin. |
| 3 | 8-12 | Gentle Breeze | Leaves move constantly. |
| 4 | 13-17 | Moderate Breeze | Small branches move. The wind can stir up paper or leaves from the ground. |
| 5 | 18-24 | Fresh Breeze | Medium-sized branches move. Small trees sway. |
| 6 | 25-30 | Strong Breeze | Large branches move. The wind can knock over empty garbage cans. |
| 7 | 31-38 | High wind, Moderate Gale, Near Gale | Whole trees sway. It’s hard to walk. |
| 8 | 39-46 | Fresh Gale | Twigs start to break off trees. Cars have trouble steering. |
| 9 | 47-54 | Strong Gale | Larger branches break off trees. |
| 10 | 55-63 | Whole Gale/Storm | Trees break or are uprooted. |
| 11 | 64-72 | Violent Storm | Buildings may suffer damage. |
| 12 | 73 or higher | Hurricane | Windows break. Mobile homes, sheds, and barns may suffer damage. |
You can see some of the storm footage in this video from Skipper Wilson. Unless you speak French, you probably won’t understand much of what he’s saying, but it does give you a sense of the huge waves and strong winds he’s been encountering this week.
Skipper Wilson is still heading east, but the winds ended the race for a number of his fellow sailors. Two of them had their masts snap off, a couple boats had rudders break, and a few had other mechanical problems. Luckily, all the skippers are fine and are headed back to land. Nineteen of the original thirty boats that began the race last month are still competing.
You can read Skipper Wilson’s latest log here.
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Properties of Air (3-5)
In this Science NetLinks lesson, students demonstrate that air takes up space, and puts pressure, or pushes, on everything around it. Hurricanes 1: The Science of Hurricanes (3-5) Wind Gusts (6-12) Commerce in the Indian Ocean (6-8) USA Today’s Weather Basics (6-12) |
