Information about wind barbs

Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

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

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.