Watching forecasts has always been part of the
nature of windsurfing, making sure you have the
right kit for the conditions and will have enough
wind to have fun without being blown off the water. This
might explain some of the attraction of windsurfing, never
knowing what the conditions will be, so every session is
different. Technological advances in forecasting have
brought longer timescales, although the increase in
accuracy of the forecast is still questionable, and the
variations between different forecast models show the
uncertainty that is still involved in forecasting. Although it
isn’t possible to predict the future as forecasting attempts
to, it is possible to observed the present, by means of live
observations from the beach. Five years ago this would
have involved ringing a mate on the beach, and 20 years
ago it wouldn’t have been possible at all. With the advent of
the internet and broadband, webcams and live weather
stations provide the information on current weather
conditions at many UK sailing locations. Although nothing
comes close to being at the beach and feeling the wind (or
lack of it) on your face, it always worth having a quick
check on the current conditions before you set off, and
possibly save yourself a wasted journey.
The quality of webcams is gradually improving, as networks
start to provide higher and higher data transfer rates.
Sometimes it is difficult to make out the water state and
wind, but many webcams offer snapshots, so it is possible
to save the image and note the true windspeed after visiting
the beach. The problem of judging the wind strength in an
offshore direction is even worse with the poor quality of a
webcam, making the true wind strength hard to judge
unless the wind is from the correct direction.
There are also weather stations, which just provide
measured windspeed, and also combinations of webcams
and weather stations, providing both images and data.
Some weather stations under-read in different wind
directions, this is something that has to be discovered by
trial and error.
This article should have all the links as “clickables” in the
Zinio online magazine, free for all subscribers. This will save
a bit of typing!
One of the most useful live weather data websites out there
is XCweather, which provides live wind data for the UK and
Ireland, and is widely used by windsurfers. The data comes
from a few private
weather
gatherers, with
the majority
coming from
METAR airport
data. The data is
updated
approximately
every hour, and
gives the average
speed, direction and
gusts. Temperature,
visibility and dew point
can also be found most of
the airport locations.
Forecasted wind strength for
each location is also provided, from
the same forecast model as Windguru.
Whilst XCweather is an amazingly useful
resource, it does have its drawbacks. The main
of these is that the majority of the locations are located at
airports, often inland or away from sailing locations. The
data doesn’t update very often, and it can be frustrating
seeing how windy other UK locations are compared to
your local venue.
The swell equivalent to Xcweather comes from wave buoy
data, allowing a glance at what is happening out at sea,
with the waves hitting the beach around an hour later.
There are several sites which provide buoy data, as the
information is vital to surfers, but all use the same data from
the same buoys. One is http://magicseaweed.com/UKIreland-
Wave-Buoys/1/ which provides a clickable map of
the buoys around the UK and Ireland.
Each buoy records the swell and wind history, allowing the
increasing or decreasing nature of the swell to be noted.
The swell height given out to sea will not necessarily be
seen on the beach, 15’ from a buoy reading will probably
not be 15’ on the beach (but will still be big), whereas 1’
from a buoy reading will give an indication that it’s going to
be fairly flat on the beach. The wave period corresponds to
the gap between the waves, and this is directly proportional
to the wave speed, and hence power. Wider spaced waves
will be cleaner, faster, and generally better!
