Weather School Musing...Wave Cloud

[simonjk]

Hi,

Just a very quick one for you.

Satellite pictures are picking out the thin stratocumulus cloud across the south of the country very well this morning. Notice the clearer skies in the eastern North Sea which are desperately trying to reach the UK. It is already sunnier through Scotland, west Ireland and SW England though as well as parts of south Wales.

Also, notice the 'ripple' in the clouds to the west of the Pennines and west of Wales. These are wave clouds caused by the east wind 'bouncing' off the mountain tops. Glider pilots use these clouds to gain height to tends of thousands of feet. For sailors they can highlight regions of gustier winds, especially to the lee of high ground.

A static picture is below, or for a sequence see http://www.sat24.com/gb

Hope that's of interest,
Simon

 

[jimi]

The wave clouds seem to persist for a long way after the source .. is that correct?

 

[snowleopard]

At dawn this morning we had a collection of lenticular clouds. Only seen them once before.

 

[DJE]

My brother's description of flying gliders on a good wave day was something like
"Nose down 80 knots airspeed, close to zero ground speed and 5 knots rate of climb."

 

[simonjk]

Perfect! That's it...lenticularis clouds are the signature of wave cloud, well spotted!!!!

Yes, the clouds will continue a long way downwind.

Go innit????

Simon

 

[BrendanS]

One evening I went into wave over Merthyr Common in South Wales when I was a novice hang glider pilot, by total fluke. I couldn't descend even with bar fully in. As I went up, I saw all the hang gliders on the ground madly scrambling to take off, but they all missed it. I was up so long and so high, that they lined up the cars on the ground with headlights on to make a landing strip for me as it was getting dusk

 

[Ubergeekian]

The wave clouds seem to persist for a long way after the source .. is that correct?

Yup. Anything up to ten bounces at 5+ miles separation is quite common.