Wind barb
A wind barb shows the wind’s direction and speed at a weather station. The shaft points to the direction the wind is coming from; each long barb is 10 knots, each short barb 5 knots, and each solid triangle (pennant) 50 knots.
How to read it
NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center plots wind in steps of 5 knots, with the outer end of the symbol pointing towards the direction the wind is blowing from; the speed is the total of the flags (50 knots), lines (10 knots) and half lines (5 knots). The WMO’s manual on weather charts gives the same values, and the Met Office calls the barbs “feathers”: half feathers 5 knots, whole feathers 10, a triangle 50. The barb drawn here is 65 knots: a pennant, a long barb and a short barb.
A circle with no shaft means calm. WPC describes the circle over the station on its own; NOAA’s JetStream draws a larger circle around the sky cover circle.
Also searched as: half barb, pennant, wind arrow on a weather map, wind barbs, wind feathers, wind flag.
These pages describe what each symbol on a weather chart means. They are not forecasts or warnings: for those, the national weather service for the area is the source.
Which side the barbs are on
The WMO’s manual puts the pennants and barbs on the left of the shaft in the northern hemisphere and on the right in the southern hemisphere. The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s notes put it another way: the barbs are on the side towards lower pressure.
Knots or miles per hour
A knot is 1.15 miles per hour, according to the University of Illinois’s WW2010 guide. NOAA, the WMO and the Met Office give barb values in knots. Iowa State University’s surface map help page gives 5, 10 and 50 in miles per hour.
Barbs by speed
Calm A circle round the station circle, and no shaft. 5 knots One short barb, set in from the end of the shaft. 10 knots One long barb. 15 knots One long barb and one short barb. 50 knots One pennant. 65 knots A pennant, a long barb and a short barb.
Read next
- Next in Weather map symbolsSky cover circlesThe circle at the centre of a station plot shows how much of the sky is covered by cloud: empty for clear, half filled for half covered, and solid for overcast. A circle with an X means the sky could not be seen.
- The same shape in ER diagram symbolsZero or manyZero or more: optional, with no upper limit. On a crow’s foot ER diagram, a circle and a three-pronged crow’s foot at the end of a relationship line mean each record at the other end may have none, one or many matching records in the entity beside them.
More weather map symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles, lines or triangles.
Sources
- Station Model Information for Weather Observations, Sample station plot, NOAA National Weather Service, Weather Prediction Center, Wind
- JetStream Max: Surface Weather Plot Symbols, JetStream, the NWS online weather school, NOAA National Weather Service, Wind Speed & Direction
- Manual on the Global Data-processing and Forecasting System, Appendix II-4: Graphical representation of data, analyses and forecasts, WMO-No. 485, Appendix II-4 (as circulated to IPET-DRMM-III, Beijing 2015), World Meteorological Organization, 2.1 ddff
- Understanding weather charts, Key Stage 4 lesson plan, Crown Copyright, Met Office (hosted by MetLink, Royal Meteorological Society), Part C: Wind speed and direction
- Reading the surface station model, Online Weather supplemental information, 9 February 1999, by Edward J. Hopkins, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Wind conventions
- Observed Winds: represented by wind barbs, WW2010 online guides, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Observed Winds
- Surface Map Help Page, PALS severe weather forecasting help pages, Iowa State University, Department of Agronomy, 1) Station Data Plot
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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