Talk:Gale

Not enough information

I'm doing a school project on these and tornadoes, but there's not enough information on gales...

Ghostrider58575

Picture caption/ November gale

I went ahead and clarified the caption for the November gale photo.. the way it originally read made it sound like the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the 1913 storm.

Crk112 (talk) 02:44, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Some general cleanup

I made some considerable changes to the lead paragraph to clarify the distinction between a gale warning and a wind advisory, adding a bit more emphasis to the fact that "gale" is usually a nautical descriptor. I've also removed a lot of the information about the Beaufort scale; the Beaufort scale already has its own article, so giving a full description to it here (including all the parts that have nothing specifically to do with gales) just seems excessive. I feel like we need to add more information to this page, but at the moment I'm not sure what to add or how to organize it. I'll probably come back to this article and do some more cleanup, and possibly add some more information if I can find it. Ironically, the article on gale warning seems more fully developed than this one, so maybe I can use that as a starting point. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Sleddog116 (talk) 13:59, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

My understanding is that gale is commonly used on land as well as at sea in the UK, and often not understood by inland dwelling US people, who would say storm. In the UK a storm is more a rain storm or a snow storm, this it implies precipitation usually with high winds, whereas gale is a description of a high wind.. so we say "blowing a gale". As in the UK you are never far from the sea, and the beaufort scale is heard by many on the shipping forecast on the radio anyway, it may be that the distinction between nautical and and land terminology is indistinct. However this is only my view, as an English person who also sails. We could do with some hard data on use-age, maybe quotes. It seems to me at the moment the article has a significant US bias, starting with the US usage and quoting US agencies, and nmaybe this is wrong as teh word is more used outside the US (I dont know how Canadians, Aus, NZ, SA etc use the term).Billlion (talk) 13:08, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Propose restructuring to sections

@Sleddog116, Billlion, and Seadowns: If you are still around (and Sleddog once asked), my suggestions would be the following:

1. Restructure the article in such a way, that intro section defines gale as a weather fenomenon, something like

A gale is a weather phenomenon, tipicaly including strong wind, and used as a descriptor of weather conditions in nautical contexts. 

Most of the rest depends on context, and so I propose to

1. Move other contents to sections. That shall also make a piece of contents of interest more easily identifiable and found
2. Creating sections would also create Table of contents, which would make topics of interest (even more when revisiting and searching for a detail) much better accessible
3. US meaning or definitions and context (maritime only or preferred?), possibly a section
4. UK meaning and context(s) as it seems there is difference...), another
5. existing contents relating to Beaufort scale, possibly another separate section.
6. Add a section with description (or link to if it is well done elsewhere) of what happens during gale (what phyisics drives it, what other phenomena are related and what are differences...). It could be only a stub section at the beginning, if necessary.
7. Etymology contents also a section (with possible mentioning or linking older meanings, as per below)
8. Adding example(s) - as suggested

User:Mr. Guye: When I read your suggestions, at first I got an impression that deffinitions are not welcome here. If that is true, I would like to say that this page is a valuable resource for people speaking languages other than English when reading materials about weather and/or sailing. That's why making reader aware of different meanings (including definitions) depending on context seem signifiant to me.

If it was mentioned as that deffinition only is not enough, as I feel now it could be, and that other contents is welcome and needed, then I wholeheartedlly agree. --Marjan Tomki SI (talk) 15:17, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

I am not sure if it is just UK usage. How is the word gale used in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia? Perhaps some quotes from newspapers would help. Perhaps only US and Canada use the word storm to generally mean strong winds without necessarily precipitation? Billlion (talk) 22:27, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Beaufort date

This article gives 1810 for the origin of the Beaufort Scale but the latter article says 1805. Can anyone clarify? D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 15:58, 27 April 2019 (UTC)

Older Meanings

Note that in older writing "gale" also seems to mean any thing down to a gentle breeze. E.g. "Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fsn the glade" (Pope), "that idly flaps in every passing gale" (Goldsmith". Seadowns (talk) 10:08, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for that info (and citations - even with those in need to be found and formally referenced to reliable sources when getting included in the article, too). This article needs restructuring, and your comment shows need, and is a good start, for etymology section.--Marjan Tomki SI (talk) 11:10, 29 January 2022 (UTC)