Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1856) was a great Irish hydrographer (map-maker) and became the Hydrographer of the Bristish Admiralty. Some of his charts are still used, nearly 200 years after he created them. Beaufort trained Admiral Robert Fitzroy who (as Commander Fitzroy) was Captain of the H. M. S. Beagle in the famous voyage with Charles Darwin (1809-1882) to the Galápagos Archipelago, resulting in biological discoveries that eventually led to Darwin's theory of evolution.

Beaufort's name may appear as geographic label perhaps more frequently than that of any other human (for example, Beaufort, NC, and Beaufort Sea, an arm of the Arctic Ocean) -- even on the Moon.

But Beaufort did something else which you see on newspaper and TV weather maps every day. Those wind barbs on a staff connected to a weather site on a weather map denote the Beaufort wind scale. The "staff" (like a music stave) projects from map circle in direction of wind. Each full barb represents 2 BEAUFORT ORDERINGS. For example, a staff with 3 1/2 barbs represents Beaufort Scale 7. And when you hear a newscaster speak of "a tropical storm becoming a hurricane", he/she is talking about the Beaufort Scale.

(I first became aware of this as a weatherman -- approximately 5 years as weather observer and forecaster in the Army Air Corps, before, during, and after World War II.)

Below is Beaufort's original wind scale for use on a British frigate.

Fresh Gale

Beaufort Wind Force Scale
As Communicated to Commander Fitzroy (1831)

0	Calm
,B>1	Light Air	Or just sufficient to give steerage way.
2	Light Breeze	Or that in which a man-of-war with all sail set, and clean full would go in smooth water from.	1 to 2 knots
3	Gentle Breeze		3 to 4 knots
4	Moderate Breeze		5 to 6 knots
5	Fresh Breeze	Or that to which a well-conditioned man-of-war could just carry in chase, full and by.	Royals, etc.
6	Strong Breeze		Single-reefed topsails and top-gal. sail
7	Moderate Gale		Double reefed topsails, jib, etc.
,B>8	Treble-reefed topsails etc.
9	Strong Gale		Close-reefed topsails and courses.
10	Whole Gale	Or that with which she could scarcely bear close-reefed main-topsail and reefed fore-sail.
11	Storm	Or that which would reduce her to storm staysails.
12	Hurricane	Or that which no canvas could withstand.

No longer using frigate-sailing as the measuring instrument, the original Beaufort force numbers now referred to states of the sea or degrees of motion of trees instead of the sails on a frigate. But ambiguities soon arose, for the state of the sea also depends upon swell, fetch and water depth, and trees vary in their response to the wind. Finally, in 1946, the International Meteorological Committee, while extending the scale to 17 values (the added five values further refining the hurricane-force winds), defined the scale values by ranges of the wind speed as measured at a height of 10 meters above the surface for each Force Number. In effect, this transformed the Beaufort Wind Force Scale into the Beaufort Wind Speed Scale.

BEAUFORT WIND SCALE

BEAUFORT N0.	STATE NAME	DESCRIPTION	MILES/HOUR
0	CALM	SMOKE RISES VERTICALLY	LESS THAN 1
1	LIGHT AIR	WIND DIRECTION SHOWN BY SMOKE, NOT BY VANES	1-3
2	LIGHT BREEZE	WIND FELT ON FACE; LEAVES RUSTLE; WIND VANE MOVED	4-7
3	GENTLE BREEZE	LEAVES, SMALL TWIGS CONSTANTLY MOVE; EXTENDS SMALL FLAG	8-12
4	MODERATE BREEZE	RAISES DUST, SMALL PAPER; MOVES SMALL BRANCHES	15-18
5	FRESH BREEZE	SMALL LEAFED TREE BEGINS SWAYING; CRESTED WAVELETS FORM INLAND WAVES	19-24
6	STRONG BREEZ	LARGE BRANCHES MOVE; ELECTRIC WIRES WHISTLE; UMBRELLA HOLDING DIFFICULT	25-31
7	MODERATE> GALE	WHOLE TREES MOVE; DIFFICULTY WALKING INTO WIND	32-38
8	FRESH>BR>GALE	TREE TWIGS BROKEN; GENERALLY IMPEFRF PROGRESS	39-46
9	STRONG GALE	SLIGHT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE; CHIMNEY POTS AND SLATES MOVED	47-54
10	WHOLE GALE	TREES UPROOTED; MUCH STRUCTURAL DAMAGE	55-63
11	STORM	RARELY EXPERIENCED; WIDESPREAD DAMAGE	64-72
12	HURRICANE	DEVASTATION OCCURS	75-136