NOT ACTUALLY A POEM but some extremely great science writing that the weather service still uses, it gets me so HET UP as I read it because I am like “YEAH those branches are gonna start swaying!!! oh heck oh heck here it comes! MORE WIND!” Anyhow, here it is.
Description on Land | Description at Sea
Calm: Smoke rises vertically. | Sea like a mirror.
Light: Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; ordinary vanes moved by wind. | Small wavelets, ripples formed but do not break: A glassy appearance maintained.
Moderate: Raises dust and loose paper; small branches begin to move. | Small waves with breaking crests. Frequent whitecaps.
Fresh: Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters. | Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed – a chance of spray.
Strong: Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telephone wires; umbrellas used with difficulty. | Large waves begin to form; the white foam crests are more extensive with probably some spray.
Near-gale: Whole trees in motion. Effort needed to walk against the wind. | Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along direction of wind.
Gale: Twigs break off trees; progress generally impeded. | Moderately high waves of greater length; edges of crests begin to break into spindrift; foam is blown in well-marked streaks along the direction of the wind.
Strong gale: Slight structural damage occurs – roofing dislodged; larger branches break off. | High waves; dense streaks of foam; crests of waves begin to topple, tumble and roll over; spray may affect visibility.
Storm: Trees uprooted; considerable structural damage. | Very high waves with long overhanging crests; the resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks; the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance; the tumbling of the sea becomes heavy.
Violent storm: Very rarely experienced – widespread damage. | Exceptionally high waves; small and medium sized ships occasionally lost from view behind waves; the sea is completely covered with long white patches of foam; the edges of wave crests are blown into froth.
Hurricane: Very rarely experienced – widespread damage | The air is filled with foam. Sea completely white with driving spray.
Ahh, it’s such a thrill ride from start to finish! THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Thanks, Naval Officer Francis Beaufort!
Whole trees in motion.
That’s fabulous! The whole thing can be read in reverse for a soothing effect.
Brb, scrolling back up the article now.
This is extra amazing because my current task at work involves the wind scale and emergency planning for our department in the case of a disaster (natural or otherwise).
OOO do you mind sharing more about what kind of department you work for? I do emergency planning kind of sort of and would love to learn about what you’re doing! (or find me @ToastiePost on twitter?)
Messaged!
The violent storm sounds almost beautiful in his description, and after having been in a few, i can attest that Naval Officer Beaufort was not exaggerating.
see also: a song for five and six by owen pallett:
“until it is as beautiful
as the wind before the storm”
–BAY AREA MARINE WARNING–
–SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY—-
–MANY WHITE HORSES ARE FORMED–
–TRAVELERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT THE AIR IS FILLED WITH FOAM–
There’s a storm front coming (mood indigo)
White water running and the pressure is low
Storm front coming (mood indigo)
Small craft warning on the radio
I read a biography of Francis Beaufort a few years ago before giving it to my brother, the ship captain. It was an interesting read about an interesting life. I just think there should have been a warning somewhere: Strange turn to incest in final chapters. Tell your sibling you’re giving him the book for nautical interest.
Ah, yes, the Incest stage of the Beaufort Marriage Scale. Very rarely experienced; progress generally impeded; the tumbling of the niece becomes heavy.
We have this forecast all weekend. I am massively not looking forward to standing out in it all day tomorrow teaching riding lessons.
Strong gale: Slight structural damage occurs – roofing dislodged; larger branches break off. | High waves; dense streaks of foam; crests of waves begin to topple, tumble and roll over; spray may affect visibility.
Could be handy if some white horses formed, though.
I was going to comment that telephone wires didn’t exist in 1805, but then I actually looked at the link, and Beaufort’s chart doesn’t have them! It just says “wires whistling”. There are some other nice variations, too, and a really lovely extra stage between Light and Moderate:
Gentle Breeze: leaves and small twigs constantly moving, light flags extended | Large wavelets, crests begin to break, scattered whitecaps
AND one between Light and Calm
Light Air: Smoke drift indicates wind direction, still wind vanes | Scaly ripples, no foam crests
(“scaly ripples, no foam crests” is either a protest chant or a secret passphrase of The Rebellion)
Um sorry but this was clearly written by someone who never read the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.
http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/tp/schm…
Mallory pls educate yourself about poetry ok.
I mean:
Yellowjacket
Pain Scale Rating: 2.0
Duration of pain: 4-10 minutes
How the sting feels: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
It’s unkind of you to force me into a fetal position in the middle of this coffee shop.
That comment was sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
This sort of descriptive scale would be ever so helpful at the doctor. ‘on a scale from 1 to 10’ just doesn’t cut it.
Allie Brosh’s pain scale is much better.
Yeah. From stubbed toe to being covered with third degree burns over 70% of your body just doesn’t work. Pain scale? They are kidding. And I rolled in with a broken bone which required surgical intervention. I replied to that question ‘Maybe a 3? I don’t know. It hurts.’
Good heavens. That’s the sexiest pain scale I’ve read in my life. BDSM fan, do you think?
For people who regularly get stumped by the question “on a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?”, find yourself a pain scale online with proper descriptors, personalise it so that it fits your experience and you can actually relate to it, and print it out. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve done as someone with chronic pain. Actually, I have an entire leaflet on two pages of A4, folded up into an A7 plastic holder and kept in my handbag. It’s got my details, emergency contact details, doctor’s details, descriptions of my medical conditions and explanations for the lesser-known ones, medication list, personalised pain scale, what I need if I’m in hospital, and what sort of hospital food is suitable for a vegan. I don’t think I’ve had a collapse where I was unable to speak since creating it, which is when it was designed for (those can end up horrendous), but it’s been useful on many occasions regardless. Seeing a new specialist, seeing an acupuncturist, in an ambulance and then in Accident & Emergency, all sorts of things. I’ve had medical professionals, who are presumably used to people only remembering half the meds they’re on and getting the doses wrong for some of them, thank me profusely for it, as they can just photocopy it and save loads of time and accuracy. I have concentration and hearing problems and a really complex medical history, so this makes a huge difference for me, too. Especially since people are far more likely to believe things which are written down, even though I’m the one who wrote them down.
That’s such a smart idea. I know people who are frequently at drs/hospitals who could really use this to advocate for themselves & ensure complete info is being conveyed.
Tell them to go for it! You can get loads of info on a couple of A4 sheets folded into 8 and put into that A7 document wallet. You don’t even need to use tiny font, to my surprise.
Oh my goodness as a doctor I can confirm, so many people come to hospital and you have to chart their medications and they say “oh I take 1 white one and 2 capsules and a little blue one”, and even if you can figure out which medication they take a dose of “one tablet” can be anywhere from 5 micrograms to 1 gram.
I’m now dead curious as to which med has that wide a range of doses.
No wonder they end up thanking me, then! It’s odd, most doctors hate it if you have written down what you want to talk about (I need to due to memory problems) and may even refuse to read it, although a few have the sense to realise it makes everyone’s lives better. But everyone seems happy that I’ve written down my meds and list of conditions.
Well not many specific meds have a dose range that big, (if any), but “a white tablet, I think it’s for my heart” covers an awful lot of stuff, so the range of possible doses is terrifying.
I often use these examples of writing about bees in my literary theory class, to talk about how all language can be literary. The only thing I’ve done is put in line breaks to make it “look” like poetry. (Oh, and I don’t tell them where they are from at first. I just give them to the class and we talk about them. As poetry. WHICH THEY ARE.)
From Honeybee Communication by John W. Kimball http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/Biology…
“Distance”
The bees measure distance
by the motion of images
received by their eyes as they fly.
“Swarming”
Before a new queen emerges,
the old queen leaves the hive,
taking many of the workers with her.
The swarm usually settles somewhere, e.g., on a tree branch,
while scouts go searching for a new home.
Each scout that finds a promising site,
returns to the swarm
and dances on it
just as though she had found food.
Eventually, the swarm departs
for the location promoted
most vigorously.
“Grooming”
Workers have another type of dance
— rapidly vibrating from side to side —
that tells other workers that she needs help
removing dust, pollen, etc.
from hard-to-reach places
on her body.
That’s an incredible idea that I am definitely going to use with the high school Juniors I teach. If only we hadn’t just finished our Whitman unit!
It’s great for close reading/connotation demonstration–just be sure you don’t let them know where it came from at first!
Love this! I’m actually teaching about the Beaufort scale today for my college students (gen ed oceanography is such a fun course), and now want to use your idea for the unit on how to read scientific papers.
Pure brilliance.
Incoming bee dance anecdote:
Our lingustics professor retired when I was an undergrad. His first freshman lecture each year was about the bee dances.
On his last day, we (the graduating class) took him to a bar, fed him booze and then presented him with a tremendously tacky pair of giant bee slippers.
Because he was awesome, he then spent 20 minutes in the slippers explaining the dances and acting out the various moves with his feet (unsteadily, but charmingly).
It’s still one of my best college memories.
AAAAAAAH THAT’S ADORBS
Also? this description of friction is one of the best calls to revolution I’ve ever heard. Again, all I’v done is add line breaks.
From Friction: Introduction http://www.physics101online.com/physics101/mechan…
“Friction”
Friction opposes motion.
You have heard that
many times.
You have to be careful
how you understand that.
Let’s say you are standing still,
and then you start to walk or run.
You have accelerated in the forward direction.
What is the force that accelerated you forward?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Not enough “a” keys on this keyboard to express my hot-heart love for this.
Not exactly the same thing, but this reminded me of a Black Books episode, where Fran listens to the shipping report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emh75AYxnzk
Ah, Black Books.
Ah, Peter Serafinowicz.
Did you see the Trump videos he did recently? The posh one in particular had me choking on my tea. So great.
The shipping report is pure nectar and I should build a meditation practice around it because then I’d be rich. And peaceful. And no one would resent me because: shipping report.
I had the idea to make a website for people to gamble on the outcome of the shipping forecast. It would be called lundyfast.net.
The Fujita Scale must be read in the original Japanese.
Yes, I’d like “Smoke rises vertically, Sea like a mirror” to be chiseled into my tombstone. It’s sooo poetic and lovely and…what’s the word? Calm. It’s my new meditation chant. (I’m only halfway kidding. It’s got good rhythm.)
It’s the new “be silent, be still.”
If it is calm and overcast, the horizon can disappear and islands can seem to float in mid-air.
No kidding. I think I might use this during labor.
GUYS
Smoke rises vertically. | Sea like a mirror.
could be the last 2 lines of a haiku! (depending on how you choose to pronounce “vertically.”)
Beaufort Scale Calm
Smoke Is Rising Vertically
Sea Like A Mirror
how are you pronouncing it to get 5 syllables in the 1st line?
I’d make it:
Beau-fort wind scale: Calm
Smoke ri-ses Ver-ti-cal-ly
Sea like a mir-ror
(hyphens marking syllable breaks)
I think I subconsciously made scale into 2 syllables. Yours is better. Although I somehow like vertically as three? I don’t know. It’s fun either way.
If you add ‘Nought’ in for 0 like Ian McKellen does you cna have:
Beaufort Scale Nought: Calm
Calm at land and sea.
Smoke rises vertically.
Sea like a mirror.
More proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXe2fOHq3I
Found the title for my autobiography in this wind scale. “Progress Generally Impeded”
“Falling Slowly; Rain Later, Good.”
Now, this post is why I love The Toast so, so much. It’s got everything: beauty, intelligence, irreverence but nature revered…it’s like reading Emily Dickinson’s guest post, if she was here taking a break from texting.
Wishing you sunshine, Mallory!
I like the Schmidt pain index for some poetic descriptions of bee and ant stings: http://psychologyofpain.blogspot.ca/2011/09/schmi…
it was set by Aulis Sallinen for acapella chorus – I performed it last year and could never tell if I thought it was brilliant or completely silly
(this is the best performance I could find…..) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6x5efCjyM
“Storm” is where I started to sing “For Those In Peril On The Sea”.
While it isn’t such a roller coaster, I assume you have heard of the UK Shipping Forecast, a real piece of poetry by way of serious function.
In Time Goes By – the BBC thing with Dame Judi Dench and whats-his-name, didn’t someone always tell them the shipping report for the Channel when they came to visit?
Possibly? It pops up in British culture here and there, and it makes sense that two people in a sitcom could know someone with an armchair interest in weather reports.
For your related consideration: Levels of the Mercalli scale of seismic intensity whose descriptions roughly approximate the effects of consuming a commensurate number of beers.
I clicked over here from seeing this on Facebook during my lunch break, and when I clicked back, Facebook kindly informed me that there’s a YouTube video of Sir Ian McKellan reading the Beaufort scale! My brain is melting with the awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXe2fOHq3I
Beautiful thank you
There is an entire book about the Beaufort scale! I found it in a gift shop at the coast, once.
http://www.amazon.com/Defining-Wind-Beaufort-19th…
AHHHHHH “FRESH” IS A CATEGORY! Now I’m just imagining wind as a rebellious teen walking around pushing organized piles of papers and books slightly off-kilter.
Yessssssss
Next week on the Toast: Dirtbag Wind.
Honestly, my pulse picked up throughout.
So basically all Lermontov was saying was “light wind. Storm. Calm.” So much for my favorite poem! http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/10/le…
“Only yesterday I finally identified the point at which umbrella use becomes difficult!” from our friends David Mitchell and Robert Webb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpcAd__qHP0
The tumbling of the sea becomes heavy.
That is really good.
I love this. When I was a child, we had a picture book illustrating all the different stages. The hurricane one was particularly exciting!
Until you live it. Exciting is not the word.
Well no. Agreed.
( I come from Wellington NZ where some of our street corners can get 150kph wind gusts and I am still grateful that to date the highest I’ve been on the Beaufort scale is Severe Gale)
Hey, wait a second…
“Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed”
Dimly Frodo saw the river below him rise, and down along its course there came a plumed cavalry of waves. White flames seemed to Frodo to flicker on their crests and he half fancied that he saw amid the water white riders upon white horses with frothing manes.
“Whole trees in motion.”
THE LORD OF THE RINGS WAS JUST A REALLY LONG WEATHER REPORT.
The Bilbeaufort Wind Scale:
Calm: Pipe-weed smoke rises vertically. Seas like a mill-pond.
Moderate: Giant spider-webs rustle in trees. Surface ripples on the water, like a thrown pebble or submerged tentacles.
Fresh: White horses are formed, with crushing and grinding boulders. Black squirrels blown from treetops. Osse, Maiar of coasts and shallow waters, menaces ships.
Gale: Forceful as dragon-wings. Balrogs extinguished. Whole trees in motion toward Isengard. The stone-giants are out. Ulmo’s bellowing laugh heard above the wind.
Numenor: Very rarely experienced. A mighty wind and tumult of the Earth. A mounting wave, green and cold and plumed with foam, rises over the hills, and all the land is overthrown into the Sea.
Valinor: Very rarely experienced. Sweet smell on the air, sound of singing over the water. Grey rain-curtain turns all to silver-glass and is rolled back, revealing white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
It already is a really long weather report. Seriously.
The use of “Fresh”,and its position after “Moderate” rather than before,is such an A+ example of poetic macho-posturing. Right up there with rescue divers using “sporty” to describe life-threatening conditions.
HELLO HERE IS THE BEST PASSAGE OF DE NATURA RERUM BY MY FRIEND THE VENERABLE BEDE
If the sun is blurred upon rising, or hidden behind clouds, then it will be a rainy day. If it is red, it will be a clear day; but if it is pale, it will be a stormy one. If it seems concave, so that shining in the center it sends out rays to the north and to the south, then the weather will be humid and windy. If it sets pale in dark clouds, there will be a north wind. But if there is a red sky in the evening, the next day will be a fine one. If there is a red sky in the morning, then the day will be a stormy one. Lightning from the north and thunder from the east means a storm is coming. Breezes from the south mean it will be hot. If the quarter moon looks like gold, it indicates there will be wind. If black spots appear on the horns of the crescent moon, it will be the beginning of a rainy month. But if the spots appear in the middle, there will be a calm at full moon. And when the dolphins leap frequently from the waters in which they are carried, then a wind will arise and broken clouds open the sky.
Translation by Thomas Eckenrode, whom I would like to kiss on the mouth, from his “Venerable Bede as a Scientist,” The American Benedictine Review 22 (December 1971): 486-507.
Wind conditions: FRESH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3JEORDUEqc
Jacques Yvart and Claire Forgeot liked the Beaufort scale so much, they used it as the basis for an illustrated children’s book called The Rising of the Wind. I can’t put it better than whoever wrote this sales blurb:
Beautifully illustrated folio book that explains the Beaufort Scale through the tale of two children who visit a blind poet who honors the sea by singing songs of the wind and the waves. Wonderfully evocative full-color illustrations, and marginal notes offering a glossary of nautical and astronomical terms.
I have been at sea in all of those conditions. Yup, even a hurricane. It was exciting, and I was glad we were on a big steel schooner that had done this before.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning
Red sky at night, sailors’ delight
Red sky at evening, sailors need cleaning
Red sky at dawn, sailors sing the greatest hits of Elton John
Red sky at afternoon, sailors discuss Frank Herbert’s Dune
Red sky at 3 AM, sailors got drunk and set the ship on fire again
I am so delightfully soothed
Or, as Joan Aiken put it:
Force Three makes ripples on the ocean
Leaves and small twigs are in constant motion
We measure the gale by the Beaufort Scale
But hey ho, how fast they blow
No one can catch the flakes of snow….
[I can’t remember how Five goes. Does anyone else know this song?]
At Seven the windward walker tires
And whistling is heard in telegraph wires
Force Nine, a wind of fifty knots
Dislodges slates and chimney pots
Untold havoc sweeps in the train
Of wind Force Twelve, a hurricane
We measure the gale by the Beaufort Scale
But hey ho, so fast they blow
No one can catch the flakes of snow….
I wrote an entire book about this exact topic! I love when people notice the scale. Here’s a little NPR piece discussing it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor…
No kidding. I think I might use this during labor.
Survived a hurricane mid Tasman in 38 footer -great experience a true blue sailor
It already is a really long weather report. Seriously.
Dirtbag Wind just needs your understanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTLO2F_ERY
I feel exactly the same way reading the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale for earthquakes.
/Felt indoors by many, outdoors by few during the day. At night, some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably./
/Damage total. Waves seen on ground surfaces. Lines of sight and level distorted. Objects thrown upward into the air./
OH OH OH I've been searching for this for years since I once saw it in a textbook! Could find it nowhere on the internet.
"the tumbling of the sea becomes heavy"
"edges of crests begin to break into spindrift/foam is blown in well-marked streaks"
"the edges of wave crests are blown into froth"
"sea completely white with driving spray"
aawrrrhrhrhghgghhGHGHGHGHGHGH SO PASSIONATE