Information about wind barbs

Wind Speed & Direction

Wind speed. A combination of long/short barbs and pennants indicate the speed of the wind in station weather plots rounded to the nearest 5 knots. Calm wind is indicated by a large circle drawn around the skycover symbol.

One long barb is used to indicate each 10 knots with the short barb representing 5 knots. At 50 knots, the barbs changes to a pennant. For wind speeds higher than 50 knots, long and short barbs are used again in combination with the pennant(s). (See examples below.)

Observed wind speed	0-2 kts (0-2 mph)	3-7 kts (3-8 mph)	8-12 kts (9-14 mph)	13-17 kts (15-20 mph)	18-22 kts (21-25 mph)	23-27 kts (26-31 mph)	28-32 kts (32-37 mph)	33-37 kts (38-43 mph)	48-52 kts (55-60 mph)	53-57 kts (61-66 mph)	58-62 kts (67-71 mph)	63-67 kts (73-77 mph)	98-102 kts (113-117 mph)	102-107 kts (119-123 mph)
Rounded to the nearest 5	0 kts	5 kts	10 kts	15 kts	20 kts	25 kts	30 kts	35 kts	50 kts	55 kts	60 kts	65 kts	100 kts	105 kts
Plotted as

Wind FROM 340° (NNW)	Wind FROM 040° (NE)	Wind FROM 190° (S)

The wind direction is indicated by the long shaft. The shaft will point to the direction FROM which the wind is blowing. The direction is based upon a 36-point compass.