UPPERWEATHER.COM _{-Meteorological Musings}

"Fresh" was a technical term in Whittle's day, referring to the rising levels of wave and gusting winds that - beyond "fresh" - would be called a gale. A "full gale" would be more intense, prelude to a hurricane or typhoon.

The Beaufort Scale has been around since 1805. It is a way of measuring the wind purely from observing the world around you, be it trees or seas. Although it is rarely used today (to our detriment), is still very relevant. Most weather observers today have never heard of it, so if their instruments go down, in say a "Strong Gale", they would have no way to know the wind speed. I think all observers should still be trained in it's use.

Wild land firefighters are probably the best at it. When I fought fires, we would post weather lookouts on almost every hilltop. They would radio in their observations every hour or so. Sometimes you would have someone report 80 knots when there was a "light breeze" or something, but most of the time they did very well.

The Fujita Scale, or today the Enhanced-Fujita Scale, is also a measurement based solely on observations. The intensity of a tornado, or storm is determined after the fact, by looking at the damage that occurred.

Next time you see the tree tops blowing or leaves being blown along the ground try to see if you can tell the wind speed. The table on wikipedia will help.