Is it getting windier?

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 9:34am

That's very good of you, Wildduck, but I've read enough for my masters on climatology, taught it for decades and although I was awarded my fellowship of the Royal Met Soc for microclimate research, I held my wet finger in the air long enough to know a little about macroclimate too.

Enough to know that no matter which way we cycle the net resultant force is against us!

Geoff

Wildduck · Post by **Wildduck** » 17 Jul 2008, 9:38am

Just glad I've got a tailwind for the London to Southend on Sunday! (well a little breeze pushing against a recumbent; actually hardly worth mentioning!).

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 9:55am

Good luck with the London to Southend, WD!

forecast, as you know, is for showers and as you say, a tail wind. I've not done that ride, but I know it will be a good one, so all the best.

Geoff

Wildduck · Post by **Wildduck** » 17 Jul 2008, 10:11am

No showers on Sunday with the forecasts I've read. 20-21C, sunny with some cloud at the start, NW wind (more like a very gentle breeze!) and 52% relative humidity. The forecast has been reasonably constant for the last couple of days although as we already know, our weather can always turn 'interesting....'

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 10:17am

You are right.. I was looking at Saturday, sorry. Only 10% probability of a shower on Sunday. Even if it rained, though, I'd rather be there cycling than shopping here in Chester

Geoff

yoyo · Post by **yoyo** » 17 Jul 2008, 10:53am

This is fascinating stuff, Wildduck and Geoff_N. I failed climatology in my Geography degree but I have always had more than a passing interest in meteorology. I recorded daily weather statistics for years - most of my senior schooldays; most unfemale of me!! I am really enjoying reading the information you are generating.

I think the weather has been considerably windier this year and note that the bbc 5 day stats rarely forecast a wind speed below 8mph. The Isle of Wight was very windy on Tuesday, especially coming into Freshwater where the wind was directly onshore making it difficult to keep the bike at the side of the road. No matter which part of the island one was at the force seemed to be in one's face!!

Wildduck · Post by **Wildduck** » 17 Jul 2008, 11:14am

I bow to Geoff's background (read his bio on his webpage). Its about time we had a weather expert on here. The last person I remember with services to cyclists was Piers Corbin back in my London Cycle Campaign days.

More of an interest to me (only did meteorology only up to A-level formerly) from a cycling/growing chillis/planet-going-down-the-pan point of view.

There also the aspect (I'm an intesive care nurse by background - mainly anyway!) that some weather patterns appear to conincide with ailments certain patients appear with at hospital. Sadly though, whilst a couple of hospitals in the country recognise this and plan accordingly (proactive rather than reactive), the rest of the NHS continues to panic when, for example, there is a sudden higher than average number of people having suffered heart attacks. I love the moments when I turn round to those more senior and say things like "Remember a couple of days I told you that......"

Really looking forward to Sunday. Used to live in Romford and Essex was a regular hunting ground for me. Haven't cycled there for over eighteen years. At least is less hilly than Hampshire!

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 11:20am

Hi yoyo, individuals collecting met data are invaluable to microclimate research. I travelled all around Yorkshire to validate amateur weather station sites that regulaly sent data to the Met Office and which I needed for my own research. Many were fine but now and then I'd discover a Stevenson Screen, housing thermometers, embedded in a hedge. A nunnery had their rain gauge on top of a shoulder-height wall to stop sheep knocking it over (this gave it less rain cos of turbulence!), and when I moved to Chester, I found the local Met office source had his raingauge sheltered by a fruit tree! He knew that the Met office didn't like the gauges to be moved in case it invalidated the data. Haha.

Microscale winds interest me. I used to have my students armed with anemometers but also soap bubbles and cameras. It's amazing what soap bubbles can show you about local turbulence, jetting of air around and over bridges. All this interest for me, was inspired by riding my bike as a teen in the Cottswolds when trees, walls, hedges and gaps in the hills meant the wind was in the opposite direction that the clouds travelled in.

Geoff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnr-135u84c

Phil_Lee · Post by **Phil_Lee** » 17 Jul 2008, 3:19pm

The wind at altitude is always different to that at ground level, even without the turbulence caused by local features - ask any pilot.

So using cloud movement as a wind indicator is almost bound to be wrong, unless you are planning on cruising at close to the altitude that the clouds are!

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 3:21pm

Phil_Lee wrote:The wind at altitude is always different to that at ground level, even without the turbulence caused by local features - ask any pilot.

So using cloud movement as a wind indicator is almost bound to be wrong, unless you are planning on cruising at close to the altitude that the clouds are!

I was only 13 then!

An appreciation of wind shear had to wait for A Level days

Geoff

Phil_Lee · Post by **Phil_Lee** » 17 Jul 2008, 5:38pm

I was referring to the attenuation of the coriolis effect by boundary layer friction at low altitude, which is only one cause of windshear - microbursts are the nastiest :evil:

You can never gain a real appreciation of windshear until you've experienced it on short final, on a PFL (practice forced landing - conducted without power). :shock:

It does tend to concentrate the mind wonderfully, for the next time you sit down to study meteorology

Wildduck · Post by **Wildduck** » 17 Jul 2008, 6:07pm

Should try it with a hang-glider or parachute....

kwackers · Post by **kwackers** » 17 Jul 2008, 6:10pm

I fly a microlight, light and with lots of wing area and not much speed. Microturbulence is my friend... :shock:

yoyo · Post by **yoyo** » 17 Jul 2008, 6:23pm

Geoff N - This was back in the 70s in Ireland growing up as a rather lonely misfitting teenager. My father was also very interested and set up the rain gauge correctly in the garden (very large). If it was very wet he used to take the readings for me. The Stevenson screen was in the bike shed at school (not the most ideal location). I used to graph the readings every month and this went on for years.
Later as a prep school geography teacher I repeated the process only the pupils took the readings. The equipment was correctly located in the middle of the playing fields and the pupils drew the graphs. I obtained more accurate figures from the Met Office for other points around the country and the pupil completed their Projects for entry to senior schools testing various 'hypotheses' on the climate of the British Isles that appear in geog textbooks. Simple but most enjoyable.

Geoff_N · Post by **Geoff_N** » 17 Jul 2008, 6:57pm

Agree, yoyo, there is much pleasure in turning what appears to be random nature into measured statistics. We can't tame nature but we can let it know we're on its case! hah.

I expect, like me, after years of reading the thermometers, and these days the digital readouts, you can go outside and know within a degree what the temperature is. I don't need it for work now I write fiction and edit a mag, but I still have a Stevenson Screen in the garden and instruments transmitting data to a display on my mantlepiece!

Geoff