The Beaufort Scale becomes REAL in the Scotia Sea...

The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure for describing wind intensity based mainly on sea conditions. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale. It became very real to us as we traversed the Scotia Sea between South Georgia Island and the Falkiland Islands on Wednesday, December 2, 2009.

The scale was created in 1805 by Irishman Sir Francis Beaufort, a British Admiral, and hydrographer. At that time naval officers made regular weather observations but there was no scale and so they could be very subjective..one man's "stiff breeze " might be another's "calm conditions." The initial scale from 0 to 12 did not reference wind speed numbers, but related qualitative wind conditions to effects on the sails of a man of war, then the main ship of the Royal Navy, from "just sufficient to give steerage" to "that which no canvas sails could withstand." The scale was made a standard for ship's log entries on Royal Navy vessels in the late 1830's.

The scale was adapted to non-naval use from the 1850's, with scale numbers corresponding to cup anemometer rotations. In 1906, with the advent of steam power, the descriptions were changed to how the sea, not the sails, behaved and extended to land observations. Rotations to scale numbers were standardized only in 1923. George Simpson, Director of the UK Meteorological Office, was responsible for this and for the addition of land based descriptors. The measure slightly altered some decades later to improve its utility for meteorologists.

The Beaufort scale was extended in 1946, when forces 13 to 17 were added. However, Forces 12 to 17 were intended to apply only to special cases, such as tropical cyclones. Nowadays, the extended scale is only used in Taiwan and mainland China, which are often affected by typhoons.

That said, our ship, "The National Geographic Explorer" endured winds and sea conditions equivalent to a Beaufort Scale rating of 8 in the early morning hours of Wednesday, December 2nd, which accounts for the severe tossing around all of received for several hours in the morning hours. The Captain told me that at the most severe point we were encountering waves of 40 feet in height from their trough up to the top of the wave. The total effect of the forces of the sea and the wind upon the ship were at approaching hurricane levels. One adventurous photographer (no, not me!!) was standing at the bow, and as a BIG wave crashed over the bow and him, he got drenched and so did his Canon SLR camera, which was shorted out from the moisture. Its prognosis is currently undetermined. As the day progressed the conditions varied but continued to get better. By midnight on December 2nd, the Beaufort scale had lowered to 4, but was still it was still a very bouncy ride, and it looks as if it will be that way for the rest of the night and into tomorrow.