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 34 and. 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 28 kn, and maxima as high as 90 kn. Through 1986, the National Hurricane Center used the term “gale” to refer to winds of tropical storm-force for coastal areas between 33 kn and 63 kn. The 90 kn definition is very non-standard. A common alternative definition of the maximum is 55 kn.

The most common way of describing wind force is with the Beaufort scale that defines a gale as wind from 50 km/h to 102 km/h. 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: