Wild Weather with Richard Hammond

[nigelmercier]

i just watched this:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04tqghf/wild-weather-with-richard-hammond-1-wind-the-invisible-force

At about 11 minutes in. Stand with your back to the wind, look up at the clouds. If they are stationary, or going backwards or forwards, the weather will stay the same. If they are going left to right, the weather will worsen. Right to left, it will improve.

Discuss.

 

[vyv_cox]

i just watched this:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04tqghf/wild-weather-with-richard-hammond-1-wind-the-invisible-force

At about 11 minutes in. Stand with your back to the wind, look up at the clouds. If they are stationary, or going backwards or forwards, the weather will stay the same. If they are going left to right, the weather will worsen. Right to left, it will improve.

Discuss.

I first read it in one of Alan Watts' books many years ago. He calls it 'the crossed winds rule'. Many hits for it if you Google it, here's the first http://www.snapdragonmirage.org.uk/page40.html

 

[Seajet]

Buys Ballots Law.

 

[Angele]

Buys Ballots Law.

Not exactly. That would say the area of low pressure is on your left (in the Northern Hemisphere). So, if that were the only consideration, clouds would always go from right (high pressure) to left (low pressure).

But they don't.

 

[[70521]]

i just watched this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...th-richard-hammond-1-wind-the-invisible-force

At about 11 minutes in. Stand with your back to the wind, look up at the clouds. If they are stationary, or going backwards or forwards, the weather will stay the same. If they are going left to right, the weather will worsen. Right to left, it will improve.

I returned from my lunchtime stroll yesterday to find five members of staff in the smoking sin bin staring at the sky! On asking them what they were doing I was told about the TV prog. On asking what they were seeing in the sky they were very, very confused. Wind from the north, low level clouds moving SW and high level cloud moving NE, but they were confident it would rain in the next week

 

[Rivers & creeks]

I returned from my lunchtime stroll yesterday to find five members of staff in the smoking sin bin staring at the sky! On asking them what they were doing I was told about the TV prog. On asking what they were seeing in the sky they were very, very confused. Wind from the north, low level clouds moving SW and high level cloud moving NE, but they were confident it would rain in the next week

Just started raining here - they were bang on the money

 

[mjcoon]

Not exactly. That would say the area of low pressure is on your left (in the Northern Hemisphere). So, if that were the only consideration, clouds would always go from right (high pressure) to left (low pressure).

But they don't.

According to BBC weather forecasts the wind blows along the isobars... (Not very intuitive, is it!)

Mike.

 

[nigelmercier]

Buys Ballots Law.

That's what I thought when he started the demo, but then it diverged.

 

[Plevier]

Vyv's link says you ignore the lower clouds, its the motion of the upper air clouds that matters.
Hamster was ignoring the upper clouds and taking the direction of the lower clouds.

 

[Ravi]

i just watched this:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04tqghf/wild-weather-with-richard-hammond-1-wind-the-invisible-force
At about 11 minutes in. Stand with your back to the wind, look up at the clouds. If they are stationary, or going backwards or forwards, the weather will stay the same. If they are going left to right, the weather will worsen. Right to left, it will improve.
Discuss.

Will that be Richard Hammond, a distinguished meteorologist, or some B list celebrity inexplicably presenting a program which any number of experts could do better? I could think of someone on this forum! Enough ranting about the cult of celebrity.

Yes, you can (usually) forecast changeable weather by wind direction. Especially, in the UK. I first read about this neat trick in Alan Watts books. As someone else on the thread said, they are great. His Instant Weather Forecasting is a gem. Full of brilliantly explained technical information but, essentially, a series of ?12? photographs of cloud formations and their possible weather implications.

The program is oversimplifying things, though. The true surface wind is what you feel at sea. If you are con land, (which I assume most of Hammond's audience are), you need to stand with the wind passing ?15? degrees to your left. Or stand with your back to the wind and look 15% to your right. (Also from Alan Watts.)


I got the Instant Weather book a few years ago, just before going on a flotilla holiday. On the holiday, one day, we noticed that, according to the book, the Greek cloud formation prophesied rain and a storm. A couple of other people on the flotilla who had taken an interest in the book, concurred. However, the local forecasts, flotilla lead crew and local fishermen all said "fair weather". Sure enough, an impressive thunderstorm struck late in the afternoon. Alan Watts 1 - Rest of the World 0.
I really recommend the book. Apart from the sailing value, it is a great distraction when you are shore bound. It is quite compulsive. My (non sailing) colleagues and I often ended up standing at the window of our high rise office glancing at the book and the skies and discussing which was the most appropriate photograph and each making our own weather predictions with utter certainty and authority. Great fun.

 

[mjcoon]

Will that be Richard Hammond, a distinguished meteorologist, or some B list celebrity inexplicably presenting a program which any number of experts could do better? I could think of someone on this forum! Enough ranting about the cult of celebrity.

Not quite enough... The give-away is in the write-up in Radio Times for Episode 2. It says "And Hammond flies a helicopter - because he can."

Mike.

 

[nigelmercier]

... I first read about this neat trick in Alan Watts books. As someone else on the thread said, they are great. His Instant Weather Forecasting is a gem. ...

Thank you, ordered. http://amzn.to/1yWq1RM

 

[SailorBill]

I first read about this neat trick in Alan Watts books. As someone else on the thread said, they are great. His Instant Weather Forecasting is a gem.

Cheers Ravi, just ordered from Amazon : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Instant-Weather-Forecasting-Alan-Watts/dp/1574093177/

Edit: Nigel, same book but different link. What's the "dolcetto-21" at the end of your link?

 

[GHA]

As far as sailing weather books go, our very own Frank's offering must be up there with with the best if not top of the pile..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reeds-Weather-Handbook-Frank-Singleton/dp/1408152479

 

[nigelmercier]

Just watched the second one. I learned:

The official distinction between rain and drizzle, why it never hails in the winter, and that some clouds can weigh a million tons. He also said something that was nonsense, but I can't remember what at the moment.

 

[mjcoon]

Just watched the second one. I learned:

The official distinction between rain and drizzle, why it never hails in the winter, and that some clouds can weigh a million tons. He also said something that was nonsense, but I can't remember what at the moment.

Well, he seemed convinced that the coolant used to make their ice balls was dry ice, despite it having been poured out and the ice dunked in it. Dry ice is dry because it is never in the liquid phase!

Mike.

 

[nigelmercier]

Well, he seemed convinced that the coolant used to make their ice balls was dry ice ...

That was it, thanks.