May 27, 2022

OTD: Francis Beaufort (1774 - 1857)

OTD: Francis Beaufort (1774 - 1857)

Francis Beaufort was born in Navan, Meath, on May 27th, 1774. He served in the British Navy for over 50 years, rising to rear admiral and being appointed as Hydrographer of the Navy. He is best remembered for the Beaufort Scale, which relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land.

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Have you ever struggled to describe how windy a given day was? Here's a helpful table culled from Wikipedia with a description of each notch on the Beaufort scale

Beaufort died in London on December 17th, 1857