How to read a NOAA Wind Graph
It’s a ritual of mine to note the first day that the wind shifts North at the end of the Dog Days. This is the day for which one waited: perhaps tied to the floating docks at the public landing, if you were lucky to get a spot, because if you awoke in the pre-dawn hours to the first trickle of cool on your face, it was a simple thing to cast off and head south.
I awoke to that first breeze at 1:48 am, but my adventure this morning kept me on land. And it’s just as well, because I wouldn’t have gotten very far. This current delicious breeze, such a relief from the hammering heat, is going to head right back to SW this afternoon.
This is what a NOAA wind graph looks like. You get there by going to this link first
Then, type in your zip code at the top to find your local weather forecast, thusly:
You will end up here:
Scroll down a bit and to the right, and you will see squares on the right sidebar for options such as the Radar and Satellite Images, Hourly Weather Forecast, and National Digital Forecast Database.
Click on the Hourly Weather Forecast.
You will end up here. There are options you can check and uncheck, and you can choose the date as well. You can play around with all of that and see what it does.
But next we need to look at the wind:
Scroll down a little and look at the second row down.
You have two choices here: you can either imagine a compass and see that the wind clocked from the SW to the NE, and then it’s going to go through a few machinations before returning to SW, or, you can click on the little tail thingies and another graph will come up showing this information in words and numbers. Like So.
So, if I follow the column down from 8 am, I can see that the temp is 68 degrees F, surface wind is 9 mph (not enough to move much through the water really) the wind direction is NE, sky cover is 22%, and we’re at 65% hum-didity in the beautiful municipality of Rockland, Maine.
The main factor here for space weather watchers is cloud cover, but, knowing wind speed and direction and simply being more prepared for what you will be encountering out there is always a good idea.