Can we talk about this prevailing-winds-west-to-east thing?
04-05-12, 06:24 PM
#51
Bicyclerider4life
Hmm, it's more complicated than I thought.
West winds are more common than east winds here in SW Ohio. However, the fantastic weatherspark.com has a nice local averages page. Scroll all the way down to see average wind speeds and directions.
S, SW, and W winds are the most common here. And windy days drop in the summer, along with very few W winds, and more NE winds.
Wind speeds:
Fraction of time spent with various wind directions, including calm days in white. Note that the graph doesn't go to 100%, the rest is calm, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compare with Clinton, Iowa for example:
Or Albuquerque, NM:
West winds are more common than east winds here in SW Ohio. However, the fantastic weatherspark.com has a nice local averages page. Scroll all the way down to see average wind speeds and directions.
S, SW, and W winds are the most common here. And windy days drop in the summer, along with very few W winds, and more NE winds.
Wind speeds:
Fraction of time spent with various wind directions, including calm days in white. Note that the graph doesn't go to 100%, the rest is calm, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compare with Clinton, Iowa for example:
Or Albuquerque, NM:
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04-05-12, 06:34 PM
#52
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04-05-12, 09:29 PM
#53
Parttime Member
No personal experience or scientific perspective, but my take is if you don't like riding against the wind, and if a great part of tour preparation is mental, and you believe that the winds across America blow from west to east, then by all means you better be starting on the west coast.
That's pretty cool.
04-05-12, 10:28 PM
#54
Walmart bike rider
The prevailing winds play a much bigger factor if going south to north or north to south. The west coast for example, you always want to go North to South along the west coast, and on the East Coast, it's generally south to north but nowhere near the extreme of the west coast so it's not as important. In the midwest like Abilene, TX Denver, CO and such,, the strongest winds are always north-south or south-north rather then east-west or west-east. In the mountains, winds can come out of anywhere.
Here is an example, this is Colorado
https://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/we....html#COLORADO
Notice in Denver, the prevailing winds are from the South. In Fort Collins, just 50 miles away, it's from the North.
Here is an example, this is Colorado
https://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/we....html#COLORADO
Notice in Denver, the prevailing winds are from the South. In Fort Collins, just 50 miles away, it's from the North.
04-06-12, 12:01 AM
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Westerlies it's called, the prevailing winds in the Northern mid latitudes. And it's the result of the general air circulation pattern. It is the same thing in Northern Europe, in general there the Western wind is more common. Locally though the wind is the result of miriads of factors, so you won't be experiencing westerlies non-stop. Land is a very complex surface, over the ocean, which is much more homogeneous, or high up in the air, the wind patterns are way move evident.
There are other wind patterns too, so it really depends where you go West to East.
Here is a video describing the general air mass movement pattern, you can notice the westerlies there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrapzHPCSA
There are other wind patterns too, so it really depends where you go West to East.
Here is a video describing the general air mass movement pattern, you can notice the westerlies there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrapzHPCSA
Last edited by mikhalit; 04-06-12 at 12:19 AM.
04-06-12, 12:13 AM
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This animation shows the global surface wind distribution (produced by a numerical general circulation model using real world observations).
At much higher altitudes, where local surface conditions do not play much role, the wind patterns are much more evident.
At much higher altitudes, where local surface conditions do not play much role, the wind patterns are much more evident.
Last edited by mikhalit; 04-06-12 at 12:17 AM.
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