Those little sticks on a wind forecast- what are they?
They’re called wind barbs, and their shape tells you the direction the wind is coming from and how strong it is.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Wind_barbs.gif)
Wind barb explanation via wikimedia
The barb shows the wind the direction is going toward: the pointy end and the end with the “flags” are flowing with the wind like an arrow.
The number and shape of the flags show the strength. A half-size flag indicates 5 mph, a full-size flag 10 mph. These are combined and added up to give the wind strength. When the wind gets to 50 mph, a triangle is shown instead of 5 flags. On wind forecasts outside of Swell Matrix, the flags might indicate knots or kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour. Be sure to check the scale.