Saturday, 29 December 2018

Okta


I like precision in all things, even in cloudiness. It's therefore terribly useful to know the word okta, which is the standard unit of measurement of cloud cover. It goes from 0 oktas (clear blue sky) to 8 oktas (completely overcast). I think we can all guess the etymology. Unusually, there is an occasional 9 okta measurement, which means something like too cloudy to see the clouds, although I'm a bit hazy on the subject.

 It's curious that this should come to mind while I'm staying in the Lake District.

In the Lake District all of these are possible simultaneously.

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6 comments:

  1. Andrew Barrow29 December 2018 at 13:51

    Ok, so what's the etymology of okta? It escapes me at the moment...

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  2. Poloxamer29 December 2018 at 14:38

    I would guess "octo" which means 8.

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  3. John Trev30 December 2018 at 03:14

    I would have sworn that the spelling was "octare" but, of course, a wiki-search refuses to confirm this. Maybe my memory is getting cloudy too.

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  4. Chris Partridge30 December 2018 at 07:34

    Oxford Dictionaries site says: "Origin
    1950s: alteration of octa-."

    ReplyDelete
  5. lilanlan11 January 2019 at 10:34

    good Sheffield escorts

    ReplyDelete
  6. Carole Clohesy18 January 2021 at 17:13

    occludes?!
    how much the cloud cover occludes your view!

    ReplyDelete