For one thing, wind, like currents, has direction and velocity, and both can be shown with arrows and symbol levels, respectively. So, you can use different colors and different symbol sizes for different wind speeds just as with currents. (See Figure 6.54 for color suggestions.) However, you can also use wind‑specific symbols , called “wind barbs,” especially if you have wind station data tied to a particular station or point on the map. A wind barb always points in the direction that the wind is coming from and contains barbs that indicate how fast the wind is blowing, thus showing direction and speed all in one without changing the color of the symbol. You can’t read these if they are too small since being able to discern the barbs is crucial to interpreting them. Therefore, they are really only useful for large‑scale maps unless you make really large barbs. They can also be accompanied by labels showing another variable.