Gale


A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are expected. In the United States, a gale warning is specifically a maritime warning; the land-based equivalent in National Weather Service warning products is a wind advisory.
Other sources use minima as low as, and maxima as high as. Through 1986, the National Hurricane Center used the term “gale” to refer to winds of tropical storm-force for coastal areas between and. The definition is very non-standard. A common alternative definition of the maximum is.
The most common way of describing wind force is with the Beaufort scale that defines a gale as wind from to. It is an empirical measure for describing wind speed based mainly on observed sea conditions. On the original 1810 Beaufort wind force scale, there were four "gale" designations whereas generally today there are two gale forces, 8 and 9, and a near gale 7:
Wind forceOriginal nameCurrent namekm/hm/smphknotsMean knotsSea state
7Moderate galeNear gale50–6114–1732–3828–3330Rough
8Fresh galeGale62–7417–2039–4634–4037Very Rough
9Strong galeSevere Gale/ Strong Gale 75–8821–2447–5441–4744High
10Whole galeStorm89–10225–2855–6348–5552Very High

Etymology

The word gale is derived from the Middle English gale, a general word for wind of any strength, even a breeze. This word is probably of North Germanic origin, related to Icelandic gola and Danish gal, which are both from Old Norse gala, from Proto-Germanic *galaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-.