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Beaufort Scale Answer
Thu Apr 01, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
The Beaufort Scale, next on The Weather Notebook.
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, for The Weather Notebook. Happy April Fools Day, but we're not
fooling around here. It is time to hear what you said about last month's Brainstorm:
What is the Beaufort Scale?
LB: This is Larry Burkholder. I listen to you on KZFR-FM. I don't want to go to the
encyclopedia; that would be too easy, huh? But my wild guess for the brainstormer is
that indeed it was used for dispatch - for guessing the intensity of the blow.
Bee Vogel of Helena, Mont. listens on Montana Public Radio.
BV: The answer to your question about the Beaufort Scale -- it was invented/devised by
Sir Francis Beaufort, I think in 1805, and it's a scale from one to 12 indicating wind
strength.
Here is a WPLN listener, in Nashville.
PM: My name is Pradip Malde. Basically, it's the measure of wind and atmospheric
conditions, and the effect the wind has on conditions here down on the ground so you
can measure the Beaufort Scale by looking at smoke rising out of chimney stacks and
the wave forms in the ocean or lakes, etc.
Kate Smith of Franklin, Tenn. adds that Beaufort: "used that as an indicator of the wind
and it indicated how much sail a fully-rigged frigate could hold and what effect that wind
had on the frigate's different riggings."
Henry Cast of Exeter, N.H. reminds us: "Beaufort is also the same man who the
Beaufort Sea is named after."
And for those of you who were wondering where the Brainstormer was: he was on a
cross-country, experiencing wind and weather, like minus 23 degrees in Minot, North
Dakota, and a drop of 56 degrees in two hours from Boulder, CO, to North Platte,
Neb.
To see the scale, check out our website: www.weathernotebook.org. Our show is
funded by Subaru and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
Beaufort Scale
http://www.mountwashington.org/discovery/arcade/wind/beaufort.html
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