Violent Storm Force 11 to Hurricane Force 12

It has been a bit breezy here the past couple of days.   Last night was a real window rattler.

On Wednesday night I was late coming home.  I was out having coffee with my pals and time got away from me.  As I crawled into bed, the clock radio on my bedside table was still on and the Shipping Forecast was
being sent out.   The man on the BBC said that in some shipping areas, the seas were violent storm force 11 to hurricane force 12!  I had never heard those numbers before! The shipping areas that were supposed to get the worst weather were further up north, shipping areas SE Iceland, Faeroes, Fair Isle, Viking.  So I knew we were in for some wind but the worst weather was further north.

Beaufort wind scale	Mean Wind Speed		Limits of wind speed		Wind descriptive terms	Probable wave height in metres*	Probable maximum wave height in metres*	Seastate	Sea descriptive terms
	Knots	ms-1	Knots	ms-1
0	0	0	<1	<1	Calm	-	-	0	Calm (glassy)
1	2	1	1–3	1-2	Light air	0.1	0.1	1	Calm (rippled)
2	5	3	4–6	2-3	Light breeze	0.2	0.3	2	Smooth (wavelets)
3	9	5	7–10	4-5	Gentle breeze	0.6	1.0	3	Slight
4	13	7	11–16	6-8	Moderate breeze	1.0	1.5	3–4	Slight–Moderate
5	19	10	17–21	9-11	Fresh breeze	2.0	2.5	4	Moderate
6	24	12	22–27	11-14	Strong breeze	3.0	4.0	5	Rough
7	30	15	28–33	14-17	Near gale	4.0	5.5	5–6	Rough–Very rough
8	37	19	34–40	17-21	Gale	5.5	7.5	6–7	Very rough–High
9	44	23	41–47	21-24	Severe gale	7.0	10.0	7	High
10	52	27	48–55	25-28	Storm	9.0	12.5	8	Very High
11	60	31	56–63	29-32	Violent storm	11.5	16.0	8	Very High
12	-	-	64+	33+	Hurricane	14+	-	9	Phenomenal

It got pretty breezy here and we lost a few panes of glass on the greenhouse . . . again.  I will admit that I'm getting weary of replacing that glass.  I'm going to have to find a solution to this re-glazing problem.

Some of the dive club members were across in Eyemouth this morning.  I don't know if the sea was calm enough for them to get in or not.  I prefer smooth, calm water but that isn't always what I have.  The roughest sea I'll consider entering is about 5.  There is some footage around somewhere of me jumping into a sea that isn't overly calm.  I'll try to put it up here.

Once you're under the water, it isn't so bad, it is just the getting in and out safely that's the tricky part.  That and trying to to get sea sick. 

At a quiz night a few years ago, The Man of the Place and I had to label a map showing all the shipping areas around the British Isles.  We got some of the labels right.  I think now we might do a bit better as we're more aware of the sea and which shipping area we are diving in  - mostly Malin.

I don't hear any roaring tonight so I think it is calming down a bit.