Is there a good wind website?

Stone · Post by **Stone** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 4:10 pm

I was wondering where everyone gets their wind information from? Just weather.com or is there a better one. It's just that I find that the wind can vary dramatically from blaine to minneapolis or from Brooklyn Park to St. Paul. Does anyone know a wind page that has different wind speed locations around the city?

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 4:43 pm

Others may correct me, though in my opinion any differences within the twin cities are small and temporary. The larger weather patterns have the greatest influence. There is a thermal "bubble" over the cities which has greater effect in the summer. The main effect of this is lower winds in the city, and extending downwind of the cities...sorta like the Logan's Run bubble. The heat of the city creates a large thermal. So sailing lakes just South of the cities on a North wind day would be different than sailing North of the cities. Also local thunderheads can suck huge amounts of wind and effect local wind patterns. Obviously, or maybe not, any frontal line, its strength and the speed it is moving will effect weather locally.

8 out of 10 times you can look at the direction the prevailing front is moving from, usually SW/W/NW to NE/E/SE, and look at cities in that direction to know what the weather will be near you soon. The faster the speed of the front the faster it will be here.

Another difference in the readings come from the quality of the source, eg. are they on a hill, in a valley, downwind of a building etc. Rochester's sensor is 100ft in the air. Their winds are always recorded higher.

If you find a site that provides valuable accurate info, let me know and I'll post it.

hope this helps.

kyakmike · Post by **kyakmike** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 7:07 pm

The weather thing I use is the weatherbug.. ( http://www.weatherbug.com I think) you punch inyour zip code and it gives you a list of reporting stations.... usually public schools, and it gives you Live, real time wind strength and direction, average, and max gusts, as well as temps and other such things... The only real problem for me is, I'm not all that familiar with which schools are near which lakes.... and the max gusts is based on a 24 hour period... be nice if it was an hour or so..... you can sit there for awhile and just watch the wind meter, see it shift directions, shift speeds and such to warn of squirrley winds, or smooth winds...
These places do NOT forcast, they just report.... the forcasts that are on there are from the national weather service I think....
But give the bug a try, I've been using it for a few years now..
Mikey