Weather sites wind direction

[Petercatterall]

I have been using the AccuWeather.com site for 15 day forecasts. I was trying to plan a trip but it seemed that the wind directions were 180 deg out. The site Originates from the USA I think, do they use a different direction convention to the UK ???

 

[VicS]

Are you using the site for Uk and Ireland:
http://ukie.accuweather.com/adcbin/ukie/index.asp

 

[starboard]

Wind direction in met is given in the direction it is blowing from......ie. 310/25kts means the wind is blowing from 310degrees i.e.NW at 25 knots.

Paul.

 

[markdj]

Best thing is to check a couple of good reliable sources for long range. The GFS wind charts are excellent as are Metcheck for their coastal forecasts.

Mark Stronge's UK Weather Portal

Hope this helps


Mark

 

[Petercatterall]

yes, thats the site I'm using. Then I did a check against uk forecast and got same wind in opposite direction.( Sailing plan to be ammended!!)
Cheers

 

[Petercatterall]

you say
"Wind direction in met is given in the direction it is blowing from......ie. 310/25kts means the wind is blowing from 310degrees i.e.NW at 25 knots"
Do you mean that is an international convention, certainly the site I used was the opposite way round (or by chance their forecast was 180 deg out)

 

[starboard]

My quote regarding wind direction is the international recognised way of reporting in aviation.
Would have thought every other met site should be the same .......maybe noy then!!

Paul.

 

[TigaWave]

Interesting site, in that it gives such a long forecast, but by friday it is saying 30mph SE with 60mph gusts....and Met office has 8mph Southerly?
So somebody is very wrong I feel, or you just cant forecast more than 3 days in this part of the world accurately...which I think is more the case.
I'm looking forward to Friday to find out...

 

[Evadne]

It is the way the world's meteorologists do it as well!! "Wind blows, tide sucks" I was taught.

 

[markdj]

I think where the confusion may lie is in the graphical representation that some sites use to show wind direction. All graphical arrows or pointers tell you where the wind is going. Text based forecasts ie. N 3-4 tell you that the wind is coming from the north.

Therefore, a northerly wind will be cold as it comes from the artic, a southerly wind will be warm as it's from the south and warmer climates. Hope this clears things up.

Any other site I've checked is using the same convention...

M

 

[Evadne]

That is true. Most use a pointer to show the wind direction then ticks stuck onto it to show the speed, e.g. 2 and a half ticks = 25 knots. These always look to me as if they should be the tails of an arrow, and I think that is exactly how some sites represent them, i.e. 180 degrees out. As you say, the text should always be the same.

 

[angelsson]

I agree, have always known wind direction is from where it is coming from, ie: a westely is coming from the west or 270deg.
Always worked for me.
Mike

 

[Petercatterall]

Thanks to all for the comments.
I've spent a bit more time on comparisons this morning.
The AccuWeather 15 forecast seems quite specific to the town you enter and seems sensitive to land mass effects, ie it may not be a good indication of conditions at sea. The AccuWeather 3 day 'sailing' forcast seems to be more focussed on the weather in a sea area.
My comparisons this time were less clear in that there were no real positive indications that the directions were 180 reversed. Just the odd one but when winds were light or changing so that time of forecast could have been the cause.
Bit of a red herring on my part I think, but I will check when there is a good positive blow on!!
Thanks again.

 

[aitchw]

No forecaster can predict with any great accuracy. In the UK wind is affected by many local topographical features and weather systems can be very localised. As wind tends to rotate around high and low pressure centres you can get totally opposite winds just a few miles apart. You can't use the longer range forecasts for anything other than a view of a likely trend. Even the 3 day ones can turn out to be totally off.

Just remember, this is the UK. If the weather was predictable here 90% of the population would have nothing to talk about.