Classification of winds

Winds may be calm, gentle, moderate, strong, or gale. Some countries have slightly different names for each of them, and some even have more classifications between each. Let us look at these five basic classes.

Calm air

Generally, those are felt as airy conditions. This class is not enough, even to fly a feather kite. It is also called light wind, and it has a speed of about 1km/hr. Calm air will be noticed by smoke rising vertically from a chimney. They have a Beaufort Number 0.

Gentle Breeze

Gentle breezes have speeds of about 12-20km/hr. They are called Gentle-Moderate Winds in the USA. Leaves and small twigs would be constantly moving with gentle breezes. They have a Beaufort Number 3.

Moderate winds

Moderate winds have speeds of about 20-38km/hr. They are enough to fly a kite and keep it going higher and higher. They can cause moderate waves with whitecaps on the sea and make trees whistle.

Strong winds

Strong winds are also called gale in the USA. They have speeds of about 62-74km/hr. They can cause high waves over the seas and break off twigs and small branches from trees. They have a Beaufort number of 8.

Gale winds

Gale winds have speeds of about 75km/hr and more. They can be very destructive, and they carry lots of broken branches and twigs from trees. They cause high tidal waves and rolling seas. They can also rip off roofs of buildings.

Gale winds that progress ends up as tornadoes and hurricanes, even though they are formed differently.