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Beaufort Scale Observation Trainer

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About This MicroSim

The Beaufort scale is this book's best example of a measurement standard that needs no instrument, and it is also a skill you can actually use: a student whose anemometer has not arrived can still take comparable wind observations. But you cannot learn it from the table. The table describes motion, and motion is the one thing a table cannot show.

Six things respond at once, all driven from a single wind-speed value, so they can never contradict each other:

  • Smoke rises dead vertically at force 0, drifts at 1, bends progressively, and by force 6 is horizontal and torn into fragments.
  • The tree is still at 0, its leaves shake from 2, its branches work harder as the force climbs, twigs snap off from 8, branches from 9, and it goes over at 10.
  • The flag hangs against its pole, lifts, extends, and then snaps and cracks.
  • Loose paper lies still, stirs at force 4, and is picked up and blown away from 5.
  • The pond is glassy at 0, ripples, and grows whitecaps from force 4.
  • The walker strides normally, leans at 6, struggles at 7, and makes no headway at 8.

Explore lets you set any force and read its description and its speed range in m/s, km/h, mph and knots. It also names the forces on either side, because adjacent forces are the discrimination that is actually hard.

Identify hides the force, picks a random speed inside the band and asks you to classify it, over ten rounds. The feedback names the cue that decided it: "Look at the roof. It is losing tiles, which rules out anything below force 9." Learning to look for the strongest available cue is the transferable part.

Compare puts two forces side by side, which is the only reliable way to tell a fresh breeze from a strong one.

How to Use

  • Click a force number on the left and watch the whole scene change together.
  • Step through 0 to 12 slowly. Notice which element changes most between each pair.
  • Switch to Identify and run all ten rounds without the cheat sheet.
  • Use Compare on pairs that fooled you, for example force 4 against force 6.
  • Change the speed unit to see the same force in knots, which is how it is reported at sea.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://iowerx.github.io/pi-env-monitor/sims/beaufort-observation-trainer/main.html"
        height="632px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

6-12

Duration

15-20 minutes

Bloom's Taxonomy Level

Understand (L2)

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 2 on ordinal scales and standardization
  • Chapter 10 section on the Beaufort scale and the wind speed unit table

Activities

  1. Walk the scale (5 min): Step from force 0 to force 12 one at a time and write down the first force at which each of the six elements visibly changes.
  2. Ten rounds (7 min): Run Identify with the cheat sheet off. Record your score and the two forces you confused most often.
  3. Go outside (5 min): Estimate the current Beaufort force from what you can see from a window, then convert it to a speed range in m/s and check it against a forecast.

Activities Extension

Use Compare on the pair you confused, and write the one cue that separates them.

Assessment

  • Classifies a wind condition into a Beaufort force from observed effects.
  • Converts a force into a speed range in m/s, km/h, mph and knots.
  • Explains why the Beaufort scale is ordinal rather than interval.

References

  1. Wikipedia: Beaufort scale - Francis Beaufort, the 1838 Royal Navy adoption, and the modern land descriptions.
  2. UK Met Office: Beaufort wind force scale - the descriptions used for the chips and the cheat sheet.
  3. NOAA National Weather Service: Beaufort wind scale - the same scale with sea state alongside.
  4. Wikipedia: Level of measurement - why force 8 is not twice force 4.