Being a Brit, I am somewhat obsessed with the weather, being a multi rotor pilot, even more so.
I have read and seen many videos about people coming into trouble in wind, not at ground level but high up. It is hard to know what it is like up there so it got me thinking, what would be a useful resource for this, aviation forecasts certainly would be good but then after trawling through a few MetOffice pages I happened upon the ballooning forecasts.
It turns out these seem to be very useful and although you need to sign up to use it, (for free), and the fact these are for UK only, they seem to contain useful data for us pilots, snippet below:
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YORK
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Time (UTC) 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100
Surface Wind Dirn. 120 110 120 110 110 110
Surface Wind Spd/Gust (kts) 11/16 12/18 11/19 10/18 10/20 10/22
Surface Air Temp (Deg C) PS17 PS17 PS16 PS15 PS14 PS14
500' Wind Dirn 120 110 120 110 110 120
500' Wind Speed (kts) 16 18 19 18 20 22
500' Air Temp (Deg C) PS15 PS15 PS15 PS14 PS13 PS13
1000' Wind Dirn 120 110 120 110 120 130
1000' Wind Speed (kts) 17 19 23 23 27 30
1000' Air Temp (Deg C) PS14 PS14 PS13 PS12 PS12 PS13
2000' Wind Dirn 130 120 130 130 140 150
2000' Wind Speed (kts) 16 18 21 25 32 31
2000' Air Temp (Deg C) PS11 PS11 PS11 PS11 PS12 PS12
Thermal Strength * Mod Weak Weak Weak Nil Nil
Thermal Height (ft) 3000 2000 1500 1500 Nil Nil
Inversion Min (ft) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1500 Nil
Inversion Max (ft) Nil Nil Nil Nil 2000 Nil
Wind Shear No No No No Yes No
QNH (Hpa) 1014 1014 1013 1013 1013 1013
Humidity (%) 60 65 65 75 80 85
Basically, if you are intending on going high, it may well be worth spending a few minutes signing up and using this info wisely
I have read and seen many videos about people coming into trouble in wind, not at ground level but high up. It is hard to know what it is like up there so it got me thinking, what would be a useful resource for this, aviation forecasts certainly would be good but then after trawling through a few MetOffice pages I happened upon the ballooning forecasts.
It turns out these seem to be very useful and although you need to sign up to use it, (for free), and the fact these are for UK only, they seem to contain useful data for us pilots, snippet below:
===========================================================
YORK
===========================================================
Time (UTC) 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100
Surface Wind Dirn. 120 110 120 110 110 110
Surface Wind Spd/Gust (kts) 11/16 12/18 11/19 10/18 10/20 10/22
Surface Air Temp (Deg C) PS17 PS17 PS16 PS15 PS14 PS14
500' Wind Dirn 120 110 120 110 110 120
500' Wind Speed (kts) 16 18 19 18 20 22
500' Air Temp (Deg C) PS15 PS15 PS15 PS14 PS13 PS13
1000' Wind Dirn 120 110 120 110 120 130
1000' Wind Speed (kts) 17 19 23 23 27 30
1000' Air Temp (Deg C) PS14 PS14 PS13 PS12 PS12 PS13
2000' Wind Dirn 130 120 130 130 140 150
2000' Wind Speed (kts) 16 18 21 25 32 31
2000' Air Temp (Deg C) PS11 PS11 PS11 PS11 PS12 PS12
Thermal Strength * Mod Weak Weak Weak Nil Nil
Thermal Height (ft) 3000 2000 1500 1500 Nil Nil
Inversion Min (ft) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1500 Nil
Inversion Max (ft) Nil Nil Nil Nil 2000 Nil
Wind Shear No No No No Yes No
QNH (Hpa) 1014 1014 1013 1013 1013 1013
Humidity (%) 60 65 65 75 80 85
Basically, if you are intending on going high, it may well be worth spending a few minutes signing up and using this info wisely
