Gale Warning

Weather services issue a gale warning for maritime locations currently or imminently experiencing winds of gale force on the Beaufort scale. Gale warnings (and gale watches) allow mariners to take precautionary actions to ensure their safety at sea or to seek safe anchorage and ride out the storm on land. Though usually associated with deep low-pressure areas, winds strong enough to catalyze a gale warning can occur in other conditions too, including from anticyclones, or high-pressure systems, in the continental interior.

In the United States, the National Weather Service issues gale warnings for marine areas (oceans, sounds, estuaries, and the Great Lakes) experiencing, or about to experience, winds within the range of 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) to 47 knots (87 km/h; 54 mph). In United States maritime warning flag systems, two red pennants indicate a gale warning; the use of one such flag denotes a small craft advisory.

The National Weather Service issues a storm warning for higher winds of 48 knots (89 km/h; 55 mph) to 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph) at sea. In the event of a tropical cyclone, however, a tropical storm warning replaces the gale warning or storm warning. The storm-warning maritime flag also replaces the gale-warning flag, regardless of the strength or weakness of the tropical storm.

The National Weather Service issues a similar high wind warning (Specific Area Message Encoding code: HWW) for high winds on land. The criteria vary from place to place; however, in most cases, the warning applies to winds of 39 miles per hour (63 km/h) to 57 miles per hour (92 km/h) for at least 1 hour; or any gusts of 58 miles per hour (93 km/h) to 73 miles per hour (117 km/h) on land unless a tropical storm warning, blizzard warning, severe thunderstorm warning, or dust storm warning covers the phenomenon.

In the United Kingdom, the Meteorological Office issues gale warnings, and radio broadcasts them four times a day at fixed times on 198 kHz in the Shipping Forecast, part of the broadcast output of BBC Radio 4. If a considerable time will intervene before the next Shipping Forecast, forecasters may issue an extra gale warning, read between programmes. The Meteorological Office issues warnings for sea areas surrounding the United Kingdom for all predictions of winds of Beaufort scale Force 8 or greater, the forecasts extending as far north as Iceland and as far south as southern Spain.

Met Éireann, the Republic of Ireland meteorological office, issues an area forecast for the Irish Sea and warnings for sea areas around Ireland with headlands of Ireland (e.g. Fair Head, Malin Head, Mizen Head, Carnsore Point) defining stretches of coast.

Meteorological Service of Canada issues a similar gale warning for lakes, oceans, and other marine areas within jurisdiction of Canada.