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Old 06-04-2007, 09:57 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Default T H E R M A L Wind!

Wow, it really went off today across most of SE Florida. It started up slowly starting at midday and boosted with gusts approaching 25 mph late sideshore from the SSE.


A plot from Delray's Windomatic

Then around an hour before sunset it was if someone hit a switch and the thermal wind vanished in minutes to be replaced with the forecast offshore westerly flow the day started out with.




Gusts recorded at Delray


Look at the air temperature. Right around the time of the sideshore from offshore wind direction shift it plunged 5 degrees and at the time the wind ended it boosted right back up. The thermal winds are largely a product of air temperature differentials and related pressures between the land and sea.


The thermal winds extended over most of SE Florida as opposed to other instances were it can be fairly localized. Here is a plot from Key Biscayne.


Here is a plot from further north at Jupiter. Note the violent wind direction changes and gust spike indicative of a squall. The wind stabilized a bit later than further south and lasted about a half hour longer.

Thermal winds aren't always that easy to predict for a given area however if conditions are clear and sunny the odds improve for thermals to turn on. NOTE: regional winds were OFFSHORE today but coast conditions were governed by sideshore thermals for a while. ONCE the conditions ended the wind shifted offshore. If you were out once the wind died and shifted away from land you might fall into some trouble. Guys have lost boards before and it conceivable that some riders might get lost themselves if far enough offshore once the shift comes.

It wouldn't surprise me to see this happen a few more days this week. Keep your eyes peeled and if it comes on lets us know with a post on "HOWZAWIND?"

Rideable conditions continue, fingers crossed.
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