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The Beaufort scale was long in use as a system for estimating wind speeds. It was introduced in 1805 by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) of the British navy to describe wind effects on a fully rigged man-of-war sailing vessel, and it was later extended to include descriptions of effects on land features as well.

BftSourroundingsWindKnotskm/hmphm/s
0Smoke rises vertically and the see is mirror smoothcalm0000
1Smokes moves slightly with breeze and shows direction of windlight air1-31-51-3<2
2You can feel wind on your face and hear the leaves start to rustlelight breeze4-66-114-72-3
3Smoke will move horizontally and small branches start to sway. Wind extends a light flaggentle breeze7-1012-198-124-5
4Loose dust or sand on the ground will move and larger branches will sway, loose paper blows around, and fairly frequent whitecaps occurmoderate breeze11-1620-2813-186-7
5Surface waves form on water and small trees swayfresh breeze17-2129-3819-248-10
6Trees begin to bend with the force of the wind and causes whistling in telephone wires and some spray on the sea surfacestrong breeze22-2739-4925-3111-13
7large trees swaymoderate gale28-3350-6132-3814-16
8twigs break from trees, and long streaks of foam appear on the oceanfresh gale34-4062-7439-4617-20
9branches break from treesstrong gale41-4775-8847-5521-24
10weak trees are uprooted, and the sea takes on a white appearancewhole galem48-5589-10256-6425-28
11widespread damagestorm56-63103-11765-7329-32
12structural damage on land and storm waves at seahurricane>46>118>74>33