CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

What is the prevailing wind direction?

(24 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from gembo

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    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.

    I have two markers for this.

    Firstly, I seem to have a headwind going home more often than coming to work.

    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 again and I'm thinking of putting some panelling on the lower half to deflect some of the wind away from them.

    Are the trees going to start bending in the opposite direction?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. PS
    Member

    Westerly is the norm.

    This year has seen an unsually high proportion of easterly winds, which are colder. I'm sick of it.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. crowriver
    Member

    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.

    Basically this is apparently not the weather we usually get but the one belonging to northern Norway or Siberia or something like that. Our summer is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

    Meanwhile, in south eastern Europe there is a heatwave of 40 degrees centigrade...

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. Instography
    Member

    More south westerly. See the wind tab.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. crowriver
    Member

    To add insult to injury it is sunny everywhere in Europe, except for the Arctic circle, and the UK. Oh joy!

    http://www.yr.no/sted/Europa/

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. Kirst
    Member

    Headwind is the norm, surely?

    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.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. AKen
    Member

    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.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. PS
    Member

    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.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. wingpig
    Member

    Don't know how far back the wind velocity data were collected but it's not an option on the 'all data' view.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. crowriver
    Member

    @Insto, "However, in all areas there tends to be a higher frequency of north to north-east winds in spring."

    Except this year the nor'easterly wind keeps coming back. It is supposed to be summer. The sou'westerly usually 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...

    * Aye, that's the school geography lessons coming in handy.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Uberuce
    Member

    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?

    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.

    I definitely remember winter surprising me with how consistent the morning headwind was, which I hadn't recalled from starting out in summer.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. stiltskin
    Member

    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 & quite strong at that. It is one of the longest periods I can recall of protracted easterlies. As someone said: Blame the jetstream

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. Tom
    Member

    @Uberuce: "Tom knows the word for that weather pattern, if I recall."

    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.

    @wingpig: That chart seems to confirm the prevalence of easterlies - like the one we had pushing us home from St Abbs.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. gembo
    Member

    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.

    citizens of high parts of east Edinburgh or indeed anyone with a west east commute on the way home may vote the opposite

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. SRD
    Moderator

    "Our summer is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic."

    Newfoundland, to be precise. Lovely weather at present. We've just booked our holiday. Will let you know if we find our summer.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. steveo
    Member

    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.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. DaveC
    Member

    Here is my Twitter conversation from last night:

    David Crampton ‏@DaveCrampton

    "@BBCScotWeather Chris is wind from NE tonight/tomorrow. It appears to switch East then West then East every other day. Havoc for my cycling."

    BBC Scotland Weather ‏@BBCScotWeather

    "@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"

    David Crampton ‏@DaveCrampton

    "@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!!"

    So in other words, its blowing from differing direction on differing days.....

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. Klaxon
    Member

    Bumping up a three old thread as seems to be CCE tradition

    The geosciences wind chart from the past month shows a textbook example of the westerly prevailing wind we have here. Every time it actually blew rather than as a sea breeze it was a W or SW direction

    Click if the picture cuts off..

    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.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    Don't know how much pollution Edinburgh gets blown in, but certainly less rain than the west coast.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  20. Klaxon
    Member

    I feel like it's raining every time I visit Glasgow. But that's because it is genuinely a lot wetter over there.

    Annual days with >1mm rainfall, average 1981-2010

    Glasgow: 170.3
    Edinburgh: 124.2

    This is a fav party fact of mine. Bank it!

    Posted 8 years ago #

  21. cb
    Member

    "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."

    And I think also, as well as that, they'd stick all the smelly factories and stuff like that in the east end.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  22. Darkerside
    Member

    That graph is a particularly pleasing presentation of data.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  23. paulmilne
    Member

    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.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  24. gembo
    Member

    @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

    Posted 8 years ago #

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