I do not understand anything about wind forecasting. I'm in Sydney ! I often get very excited about a forecast for a great day's windsurfing, only to hang around doing nothing for a few hours, totally frustrated.
With all the technology around how is it we can't get a better forecast ?
Can someone please explain why the forecasts are so poor ?
Select to expand quotesailfin said..
I do not understand anything about wind forecasting. I'm in Sydney ! I often get very excited about a forecast for a great day's windsurfing, only to hang around doing nothing for a few hours, totally frustrated.
With all the technology around how is it we can't get a better forecast ?
Can someone please explain why the forecasts are so poor ?
You could blame it on Climate Change which may or may not have been factored into the forecasts
Imagine what it was like for us oldies in the 80's with no internet and BOM once daily 'over' forecasting!
Select to expand quotetomp said..
Imagine what it was like for us oldies in the 80's with no internet and BOM once daily 'over' forecasting!
I used to look at the synoptic weather charts. The winds spinning off anti clockwise for high pressure systems and clockwise for low pressure systems. Frontal winds follow the fronts. If there was a huge high pressure system sitting out in the Tasman Sea around Lord Howe Island then NE seabreezes were a sure bet.
Nowdays I just look at the arrows and am often disappointed, like yesterday afternoon. I need to put in a bit more effort.
The N.E's especially are sensitive to cloud cover. For a NE sea breeze to "suck in" you need the temp diff between the coast and inland. The hot air rises over the West sucking the cool air in from the sea to replace it. If a good NE is forecast and it is cloudy in the morning there is a chance that the NE will not be as strong as forecast. Clear morning and starts coming in at 11. Happy days!!! You need to also couple this with the synoptic charts as Moby says with the closer the isobars the stronger the wind. However this is also a function of latitude as well, and higher the latitude the stronger the wind for the same spacing between the isobars.
I use about 3 different website + synoptic charts and previous experience and can generally get a pretty good idea of what will happen..
Select to expand quotetomp said..
Imagine what it was like for us oldies in the 80's with no internet and BOM once daily 'over' forecasting!
Remember calling the BOM to get the recorded forecast from a phone which was connected to the wall, mine even had a round dial with numbers in it on the top of it.
Was the number 11541?
^^^I remember when sailing in Canberra we use to call the Canberra Airport for live readings, When the easterly hit there it was time to get out on the water...Happy days....Now I just look out the window 
At the end of my street there's a tall gum tree standing 20m + if the branches swing back and forth it's good enough for a sail.
