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 47 kn. 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 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 which 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 different "gale" designations whereas generally today there are two gale forces, 8 and 9, and a near gale 7:

Etymology

The word gale is derived from the Middle English gale, a general word for wind of any strength, even a breeze. This word is probably of North Germanic origin, related to Icelandic gola (breeze) and Danish gal (furious, mad), which are both from Old Norse gala (to sing), from Proto-Germanic *galaną (to roop, sing, charm), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (to shout, scream, charm away).