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.

6 comments:

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

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  2. I would guess "octo" which means 8.

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

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

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