http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: What is the prevailing wind direction? en Fri, 22 May 2026 02:16:30 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205120 Sat, 21 Nov 2015 18:31:45 +0000 gembo 205120@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@paul Milne, indeed the lejog people hang around lands end waiting for the equinoctal gales in March April to whip up from the south west and blow them north easterly </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205105 Sat, 21 Nov 2015 11:47:23 +0000 paulmilne 205105@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I think we can properly say the prevailing wind is south-westerly, a the graph shows. Why LEJOT is must usually run in that order. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205083 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 17:02:19 +0000 Darkerside 205083@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That graph is a particularly pleasing presentation of data. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205081 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 16:01:35 +0000 cb 205081@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"This is why west ends are historically, by and large, nicer areas than east ends all across the UK. All the pollution from west end chimneys had to go somewhere."</p> <p>And I think also, as well as that, they'd stick all the smelly factories and stuff like that in the east end. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205080 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:55:29 +0000 Klaxon 205080@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I feel like it's raining every time I visit Glasgow. But that's because it is genuinely a lot wetter over there.</p> <p>Annual days with &gt;1mm rainfall, average 1981-2010</p> <p><a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/gcuvz3bch">Glasgow: 170.3</a><br /> <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/gcvwr3zrw">Edinburgh: 124.2</a></p> <p>This is a fav party fact of mine. Bank it! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205078 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:49:24 +0000 chdot 205078@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Don't know how much pollution Edinburgh gets blown in, but certainly less rain than the west coast. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-205076 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:43:36 +0000 Klaxon 205076@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Bumping up a three old thread as seems to be CCE tradition</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/Weathercam/station/month.html">geosciences</a> wind chart from the past month shows a textbook example of the westerly prevailing wind we have here. Every time it <em>actually</em> blew rather than as a sea breeze it was a W or SW direction</p> <p>Click if the picture cuts off..</p> <p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/3hXbhkP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3hXbhkP.jpg"></a></p> <p>This is why west ends are historically, by and large, nicer areas than east ends all across the UK. All the pollution from west end chimneys had to go somewhere. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75634 Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:31:24 +0000 DaveC 75634@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Here is my Twitter conversation from last night:</p> <p>David Crampton ‏@DaveCrampton</p> <p>"@BBCScotWeather Chris is wind from NE tonight/tomorrow. It appears to switch East then West then East every other day. Havoc for my cycling."</p> <p>BBC Scotland Weather ‏@BBCScotWeather </p> <p>"@DaveCrampton Hi Dave, NE'ly now but it'll be veering SE'ly as the Low moves north, but likely backing E'ly later then maybe NE'ly again! CB"</p> <p>David Crampton ‏@DaveCrampton </p> <p>"@BBCScotWeather So in otherwords E then W nextday then E again later/next day. Hoping for tailwind to AND from work in same day #AyeRight!!"</p> <p>So in other words, its blowing from differing direction on differing days..... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75503 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:31:34 +0000 steveo 75503@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I also vote to retain the easterly winds, a gentle headwind in the morning then blown home at high speed. I could get used to that. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75499 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:51:20 +0000 SRD 75499@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"Our summer is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic."</p> <p>Newfoundland, to be precise. Lovely weather at present. We've just booked our holiday. Will let you know if we find our summer. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75490 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:21:06 +0000 gembo 75490@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I vote to keep the prevailing easterlies instead of reverting to westerlies as they blow me home up the hill and I don't mind them into my teeth on the way down.</p> <p>citizens of high parts of east Edinburgh or indeed anyone with a west east commute on the way home may vote the opposite </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75487 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:54:25 +0000 Tom 75487@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Uberuce: "Tom knows the word for that weather pattern, if I recall."</p> <p>Alas your recall is better than mine. I thought they were anabatic and catabatic but those are wind effects in valleys. In this case the winds are just onshore and offshore.</p> <p>@wingpig: That chart seems to confirm the prevalence of easterlies - like the one we had pushing us home from St Abbs. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75485 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:45:36 +0000 stiltskin 75485@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>When the isobars are spaced we often get a light easterly sea breeze in the summer, but this spring/summer has been different. It has been an easterly for quite some time &amp; quite strong at that. It is one of the longest periods I can recall of protracted easterlies. As someone said: Blame the jetstream </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75482 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:32:13 +0000 Uberuce 75482@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I did think as I was typing that it had been morning tail and lunchtime headwind the last wee while, so maybe it's a summer thing? </p> <p>I will guess it's to do with the longer hours of sunlight heating the land and floating its air up which sooks the air in from off the sea, which is east of my Slateford/Gyle run. Tom knows the word for that weather pattern, if I recall.</p> <p>I definitely remember winter surprising me with how consistent the morning headwind was, which I hadn't recalled from starting out in summer. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75468 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:32:36 +0000 crowriver 75468@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Insto, "However, in all areas there tends to be a higher frequency of north to north-east winds in spring."</p> <p>Except this year the nor'easterly wind keeps coming back. It is supposed to be summer. The sou'westerly <em>usually</em> means rain in the west of Scotland, dry in the east as warm moist sea air is forced to rise over the hills, cooling and forming precipitation*. Now we have it the 'wrong' way around...</p> <p>* Aye, that's the school geography lessons coming in handy. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75464 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:54:07 +0000 wingpig 75464@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/abs/Weathercam/station/month.html"><img src="http://xweb.geos.ed.ac.uk/~weather/jcmb_ws/JCMB_station-27.jpg"></a></p> <p>Don't know how far back the wind velocity data were collected but it's not an option on the 'all data' view. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75460 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:34:37 +0000 PS 75460@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I think haar isn't so much caused by the direction of the meteorological/atmospheric wind (if you see what I mean) but by local temperature and humidity differences between sea and land. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75458 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:26:29 +0000 AKen 75458@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>When you are cycling, then the headwind is always in the opposite direction to the one you are travelling in. This, however, is strictly personal and not related to any general prevailing weather patterns. It can be related to the phenomenon of lunchtime tectonics, whereby the landscape re-arranges itself so that the hills you had to climb on the way into work are now re-aligned to slope the other way, necessitating a climb home. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75450 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:20:16 +0000 Kirst 75450@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Headwind is the norm, surely?</p> <p>SRSLY though, I have noticed that round about this time of year the wind direction often changes, to bring the haar in off the sea. Rest of the time it's westerly. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75445 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:04:03 +0000 crowriver 75445@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>To add insult to injury it is sunny everywhere in Europe, except for the Arctic circle, and the UK. Oh joy!</p> <p><a href="http://www.yr.no/sted/Europa/" rel="nofollow">http://www.yr.no/sted/Europa/</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75444 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:01:54 +0000 Instography 75444@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>More south westerly. See the <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/es/">wind</a> tab. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75443 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:55:30 +0000 crowriver 75443@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Allegedly the thing that has spoiled the weather since April onwards is this nor-easterly coming from the Arctic. Sommat to do with jetstream, Atlantic conveyors moving further west, voodoo and pagan sacrifices.</p> <p>Basically this is apparently not the weather we <em>usually</em> get but the one belonging to northern Norway or Siberia or something like that. Our summer is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.</p> <p>Meanwhile, in south eastern Europe there is a heatwave of 40 degrees centigrade... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75441 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:52:08 +0000 PS 75441@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Westerly is the norm. </p> <p>This year has seen an unsually high proportion of easterly winds, which are colder. I'm sick of it. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=7242#post-75440 Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:39:23 +0000 Wilmington's Cow 75440@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I only ask because Uberuce mentioned on another thread that the wind is 'usually' westerly. This was my understanding. But recently it just seems to be almost relentlessly easterly.</p> <p>I have two markers for this.</p> <p>Firstly, I seem to have a headwind going home more often than coming to work.</p> <p>Secondly, our chicken run was neatly sheltered by the shed and a big bush from the prevailing wind, but more recently the poor things have had to cower so much from the rain being blown in from the opposite direction that I need to change the bedding of the run <em>again</em> and I'm thinking of putting some panelling on the lower half to deflect some of the wind away from them.</p> <p>Are the trees going to start bending in the opposite direction? </p>