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What's this? Windy City?

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foxfai

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Recently a friend bought an inflatable boat and looking to go out togging at some known spots.

 

Looking at the 10 day forecast, every single day the wind is over 10+ mph up to 25+. What the hell?

 

I know fall is bad, not THIS bad. :banghd:

 

Not to mention whatever rolled through last night, I thought I was going to lose power. 

Edited by foxfai
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Fall is windy for a certain reason: the jet stream is back overhead.

 

The JS weakens and gets shunted to the far north in summer, because maximum daylight hours reduce the temperature difference between the pole and equator. Ridges of high pressure can move in and push it farther north, which equals fair mild weather and calm winds. 'Trofs' of unstable air and energy are less common in summer.

polar_front_summer_winter.jpg.ed355923514d187aba4b833024bc6b35.jpg

 

Now with the pole back in endless night, the cold builds fast and punches south. The jet stream speeds up and follows south, typically on the border between very cold and temperate. Beneath the jet stream, and the weather systems that ride along it, windiness is common.

 

But perhaps the biggest reason for wind is the change in pressure, rising fast or falling fast. Sharp fall cold fronts spike the pressure up right behind them: windy and cold. Low pressure storms that ride the jetstream: pressure drops fast, more wind. Right before a strong cold front, warm wind howls from SSW because the pressure is tumbling before the front

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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48 mins ago, foxfai said:

now guide us to some windless spots. :p

Here's a few tips that may help understand the what and why of wind in fall, and how you can pick your brief windless windows best

 

Original Buzzards Bay wind vs Atmos Pressure plot.. and one with my annotations 

5bc73d0ca2407_plot_wind_pres(8).png.99b7180a013236f7ee3dc94f4f5b2ac9.pngWind.jpg.bc435e4ad5fd9324986fd506b9854ba2.jpg

 

1) Purple circles: shows windspeed lowest on consecutive days near sunrise and very early morning(12GMT = 8am EST now... 7am after clocks go back in fall).

 

Often in fall, once the sun is up and starts heating the surface, wind picks up as surface-warmed air rises into the cold fall air up at altitude. Tip: dawn is often(but obv not always) best for calmest air. If you're not there for sunrise you may miss your brief window.

 

2) Magenta Box: the hourly green dots that form a pressure trace are very close together. Pressure is not changing much. So windspeed drops low.

 

3) Orange Box: hourly green dots much more spaced out. Pressure changing rapidly. In this case, it's the warm SSW side just before a strong cold front, so pressure plunging. Notice the wind comes up sharply in perfect inverse of pressure change. 

 

4) Blue Box: strong Cold front blasts through and pressure continues to change rapidly (gap between hrly dots). This time pressure spikes up behind cold front. Strong wind continues.

 

Bottom line: weather you're looking for to fish calmest conditions in fall is when the center of a high pressure cell is directly overhead.

Figure-2.png.6b7447e0a6d8461e34ddfa1bb0bb6674.png

In this case the pressure doesn't change much hour-to-hour. These days often have clear Canadian blue type skies. And dawn will often be calmest, with a little more wind as noon approaches 

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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3 hours ago, foxfai said:

Thank you again @rst3. Learn a lot from your posts. now guide us to some windless spots. :p

The wind is out of the north or west most days in the fall so pick a spot where you can anchor up close to the shoreline to block the wind and you should be good. There won’t be as big of waves as a windy summer day with winds out of the south. Tog should be shallow now so you don’t have to travel much. 

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2 hours ago, z-man said:

The wind is out of the north or west most days in the fall so pick a spot where you can anchor up close to the shoreline to block the wind and you should be good. There won’t be as big of waves as a windy summer day with winds out of the south. Tog should be shallow now so you don’t have to travel much. 

This.^

 

Was going to add something similar but couldn't explain it as well as you just did. Esp wrt tog right now.

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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In layman's terms... that was a "Big Boy" cold front that just swept through. Winds will be howling as pressure skyrockets, starting sometime after midnight through coffee break tomorrow

 

5am:

Screenshot_20181017-200112_Chrome.jpg.955da65d6e7081d8593f99196dd1497e.jpg

 

8amScreenshot_20181017-200151_Chrome.jpg.08df25ba0bf0df33940840b55ea2ec7a.jpg

Edited by rst3

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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Windy City Fun Fact: "gale force" winds meet the same force designation as "tropical storm" force winds. 

Prepare accordingly.

 

More galey stuff

Screenshot_20181017-203537_Chrome.jpg.928c737baae7e275b2b9f4cb33065c1d.jpg20181017_203825.jpg.223e1453f2dcf1f49a57dc19720c13a7.jpg

 

Edit: the seastate wave numbers assume unlimited fetch and maximum seastate development. Obviously a gale 300 feet from shore will have waves about 2 feet high. 300miles from shore? See above^

Edited by rst3
Blow jawb

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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