Francis Beaufort scale, decoded as 32–38 mph, or a "moderate Gale". Beaufort, like other patrons of exploration, has had his name given to many geographical places. Among these: Beaufort created the Beaufort cipher. It is a substitution cipher similar to the Vigenère cipher. Francis Beaufort Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, KCB, FRS, FRGS, FRAS, MRIA (; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was the creator of the Beaufort Scale for indicating wind force. Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Huguenots, who fled the French Wars of Religion in the
Beaufort scale responsible for this and for the addition of the land-based descriptors. The measure was slightly altered some decades later to improve its utility for meteorologists. Today, many countries have abandoned the scale and use the metric system based units, m/s or km/h, instead, but the severe weather warnings given to the public are still approximately the same as when using the Beaufort scale. The Beaufort scale was extended in 1946, when forces 13 to 17 were added. However, forces 13 to 17 were intended to apply only to special cases, such as tropical cyclones. Nowadays, the extended scale is only