Here are some useful resources to help you plan your diving. And please do
- Information
- UK Weather, Tides and shipping
- The UK Met Office
- OnlineWeather.com is an excellent site and offers inshore sailing weather and forecasts out to 15 days. Best of all it’s free. If you have a WAP compatible mobile phone, you can even check the weather on the move with their wap service.
-
US National Weather Service Data Buoys provide real time weather and sea condition information of the seas around our coast.
- UKHO Easytide provides detailed predictions for any port up to 7 days in advance.
- Getting There
- RAC offer a free route planning service & traffic news.
- UK streetmap finders from Multimap or Streetmap
- Dive On!
- Available to BASAC members only. Download some useful forms to help you plan and run your dives.
The Beaufort Wind Scale
If you used some of the weather services above they may have included the wind strength details either in metres per second (m/s), MPH, or as a number in the Beaufort Wind Scale.
This scale for estimating the wind speed was named after Admiral Sir F. Beaufort (1774-1857). It is based upon observing the effect of the wind on common objects, such as smoke and trees.
The table below will help you relate your gathered information to associated land and sea conditions. Whilst it is impossible to dictate a maximum windspeed suitable for diving, force 5 or greater is generally considered the maximum. Of course this is entirely dependent on your choice of site, type of boat, experience of cox & divers etc.
Beaufort
Number |
Descriptive Term |
Mean Wind Speed |
Observations |
| |
|
MPH |
m/s |
Knots |
|
| 0 |
Calm |
<1 |
<0.3 |
<1 |
Tree
leaves don’t move; smoke rises vertically; sea is like a
mirror. |
1
|
Light
Air |
1-3 |
- 0.3-
- 1.5
|
1-3 |
Tree
Leaves don’t move; smoke drifts slowly; sea is lightly
rippled |
2
|
Slight
Breeze |
4-7 |
- 1.6-
- 3.2
|
4-6 |
Tree
Leaves Rustle; flags wave slightly; can feel wind on your
face; small wavelets or scale waves |
3
|
Gentle
Breeze |
8-12 |
- 3.3-
- 5.4
|
7-10 |
Leaves
and twigs move around; small flags extended; large
wavelets; crests begin to break; perhaps scattered white
horses |
4
|
Moderate
Breeze |
13-18 |
- 5.5-
- 8.2
|
11-16 |
Small
branches move; flags flap; raises dust and paper; waves
with fairly frequent white horses. |
5
|
Fresh
Breeze |
19-24 |
- 8.3-
- 10.7
|
17-21 |
Small
trees sway; flags flap and ripple; moderate waves with
many white horses |
6
|
Strong
Breeze |
25-31 |
- 10.8-
- 14.1
|
22-27 |
Large
branches sway; flags beat and pop; open wires (such as
telegraph wires) begin to "whistle"; umbrellas
are difficult to keep under control; larger waves form;
the white foam crests are more extensive everywhere. |
7
|
Moderate
Gale |
32-38 |
- 14.2-
- 17.1
|
28-33 |
Whole
trees sway; noticeably difficult to walk; large waves
("heaping sea") |
8
|
Fresh
Gale |
39-46 |
- 17.2-
- 20.7
|
34-40 |
Twigs
break off trees; moderately high sea with blowing foam |
9
|
Strong
Gale |
47-54 |
- 20.8-
- 24.1
|
41-47 |
Branches
break off trees; tiles blown from roofs; high crested
waves |
10
|
Whole
Gale |
55-63 |
- 24.2-
- 28.2
|
48-55 |
Some
trees blown down; damage to buildings; high churning
white sea |
11
|
Storm |
64-74 |
- 28.3-
- 33.3
|
56-63 |
Widespread
damage to trees and buildings; these typically occur only
at sea, and rarely inland; mountainous waves |
12
|
Hurricane |
75+ |
33.4+ |
64+ |
Extreme
destruction; severe and extensive damage |
I hope you find the information here useful. We hope to build up an extensive database of practical information on RIB launching sites in the South West, and details of good shore dives.
If you have any information for us, or spot any broken links or errors in this page, please let me know.
Above all, safe diving.
