When there is not a functioning anemometer, observers on board ships will usually determine the speed of the wind by estimating Beaufort force. Through experience, ships' officers have developed various methods of estimating this force. The effect of the wind on the observer himself, the ship's rigging, flags, etc., is used as a guide, but estimates based on these indications give the relative wind which must be corrected for the motion of the ship before an estimate of the true wind speed can be obtained.

The most common method involves the appearance of the sea surface. The state of the sea disturbance, i.e. the dimensions of the waves, the presence of white caps, foam, or spray, depends principally on three factors:

1. The wind speed. The higher the speed of the wind, the greater is the sea disturbance.
2. The wind's duration. At any point on the sea, the disturbance will increase the longer the wind blows at a given speed, until a maximum state of disturbance is reached.
3. The fetch. This is the length of the stretch of water over which the wind acts on the sea surface from the same direction.

For a given wind speed and duration, the longer the fetch, the greater is the sea disturbance. If the fetch is short, such as a few miles, the disturbance will be relatively small no matter how great the wind speed is or how long it has been blowing.

Swell waves are not considered when estimating wind speed and direction. Only those waves raised by the wind blowing at the time are of any significance.

A wind of a given Beaufort force will, therefore, produce a characteristic appearance of the sea surface provided that it has been blowing for a sufficient length of time, and over a sufficiently long fetch.

In practice, the mariner observes the sea surface, noting the size of the waves, the white caps, spindrift, etc., and then finds the criterion which best describes the sea surface as observed. This criterion is associated with a Beaufort number, for which a corresponding mean wind speed and range in knots are given. Since meteorological reports require that wind speeds be reported in knots, the mean speed for the Beaufort number may be reported, or an experienced observer may judge that the sea disturbance is such that a higher or lower speed within the range for the force is more accurate.

This method should be used with caution. The sea conditions described for each Beaufort force are "steadytate" conditions; i.e. the conditions which result when the wind has been blowing for a relatively long time, and over a great stretch of water. However, at any particular time at sea the duration of the wind or the fetch, or both, may not have been great enough to produce these "steady-state" conditions. When a high wind springs up suddenly after previously calm or near calm conditions, it will require some hours, depending on the strength of the wind, to generate waves of maximum height. The height of the waves increases rapidly in the first few hours after the commencement of the blow, but increases at a much slower rate later on.

At the beginning of the fetch (such as at a coastline when the wind is offshore) after the wind has been blowing for a long time, the waves are quite small near shore, and increase in height rapidly over the first 50 miles or so of the fetch. Farther offshore, the rate of increase in height with distance slows down, and after 500 miles or so from the beginning of the fetch, there is little or no increase in height.

Table 3611 illustrates the duration of winds and the length of fetches required for various wind forces to build seas to 50 percent, 75 percent, and 90 percent of their theo retical maximum heights.

The theoretical maximum wave heights represent the average heights of the highest third of the waves, as these waves are most significant.

It is clear that winds of force 5 or less can build seas to 90 percent of their maximum height in less than 12 hours, provided the fetch is long enough. Higher winds require a much greater time, force 11 winds requiring 32 hours to build waves to 90 percent of their maximum height. The times given in Table 3611 represent those required to build waves starting from initially calmsea conditions. If waves are already present at the onset of the blow, the times would be somewhat less, depending on the initial wave heights and their direction relative to the direction of the wind which has sprung up.

The first consideration when using the sea criterion to estimate wind speed, therefore, is to decide whether the wind has been blowing long enough from the same direction to produce a steady state sea condition. If not, then it is possible that the wind speed may be underestimated.

Experience has shown that the appearance of whitecaps, foam, spindrift, etc. reaches a steady state condition before the height of the waves attain their maximum value. It is a safe assumption that the appearance of the sea (such as white-caps, etc.) will reach a steady state in the time required to build the waves to 50-75 percent of their maximum height. Thus, from Table 3611 it is seen that a force 5 wind could require 8 hours at most to produce a characteristic appearance of the sea surface.

A second consideration when using the sea criteria is the amount of the fetch over which the wind has been blowing to produce the present state of the sea. On the open sea, unless themariner has the latest synoptic weathermap available, the length of the fetch will not be known. It will be seen from Table 3611 though, that only relatively short fetches are required for the lower wind forces to generate their characteristic seas. On the open sea, the fetches associated with most storms and other weather systems are usually long enough so that even winds up to force 9 can build seas up to 90 percent or more of their maximum height, providing the wind blows from the same direction long enough.

When navigating close to a coast or in restricted waters, however, it may be necessary to make allowances for the shorter stretches of water over which the wind blows. For example, referring to Table 3611, if the ship is 22 miles from a coast, and an offshore wind with an actual speed of force 7 is blowing, the waves at the ship will never attain more than 50 percent of their maximum height for this speed no matter how long the wind blows. Hence, if the sea criteria were used under these conditions without consideration of the short fetch, the wind speed would be underestimated. With an offshore wind, the sea criteria may be used with confidence if the distance to the coast is greater than the values given in the extreme right-hand column of Table 3611, provided that the wind has been blowing offshore for a sufficient length of time.

• Zone Time In Celestial Navigation - 2009-04-21 - 01:09:16
• Some common local winds are listed by local name - 2009-04-21 - 12:35:43
• Wind Patterns - Modifications of the General Circulation - 2009-04-21 - 05:46:03
• Maneuvering to Avoid the Storm Center - 2009-04-21 - 05:03:03
• Weather Routing - Benefits - 2009-04-19 - 07:35:50
• Weather Routing - Communications - 2009-04-19 - 07:25:17
• Weather Routing - Southern Hemisphere Routing - 2009-04-19 - 07:21:29
• Weather Routing - Types of Recommendations and Advisories - 2009-04-19 - 07:16:12
• Special Weather and Environmental Considerations - 2009-04-19 - 07:06:59
• Weather Routing - Synoptic Weather Considerations - 2009-04-19 - 06:15:22

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