Posted by Mark I have had some extra time to write a web script that will show the forecasted winds aloft for 160 cities in the mainland USA and 30 cities in Alaska. I hope that the die-hard cold flying group can put it to use. All of the data was obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a government agency of the USA that is a division of the National Weather Service, also a USA government agency. NOAA is the group that sends up the weather balloons to measure atmospheric conditions. From current and historic data, they can predict the winds aloft. If you have ever visited the NOAA web site, then you know that all of their wind data is measured in north azimuths reversed, knots, UTC, and Celsius and presented in a numerical format. Unless you are experienced pilot, you may not even know how to use the data. This program converts the NOAA data to bearings, miles per hour, local time, and Fahrenheit and then graphs the data for easy viewing and easy understanding. The program will show graphical displays of the forecasts for wind direction, wind speed, wind temperature, and wind chill at 3000, 6000, 9000, 12k, 18k, 24k, 30k 34k, and 39k feet. If your flying site is not near one of those 160 cities listed, the program is still a good study aid for understanding how the wind shifts and temperature variations at different elevations. Wind shifts of 90 degrees are sometimes common in as little 3000 feet elevation change. Not as common, but there are wind shifts of 180 degrees in 3000 feet. This is usually due to the clashing of cold fronts with warm pocket of air. I believe this web page offers the pilot a better understanding of forecasted winds aloft than those offered by Intellicast and the Weather Channel because this program slices the sky allowing the pilot to see forecasts for different flight elevations rather than those single elevation maps offered by the others. http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/Aloft.cgi At the bottom of each page is the Raw Data obtained from NOAA and link to their web site. If youre planning on doing some exposed flying this winter, it will probably be a good idea to check the wind chill temperatures at your flight elevation. You can get frostbite in as little as 15 minutes with wind chills of 20F. If you are not flying this winter, make sure you bookmark this page for your spring flights. Mark Griffin Link: http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/Aloft.cgi
on 12/18/2001, 7:56 am
I can tell it is winter time because I find myself behind a computer screen more than I am out flying.
The script is located at
mark@usweather.net
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