Prevailing wind in SE UK?

[Training Risky]

Hi chaps - not sure where to post this question.

Thinking of taking the trouble and strife on a hot air balloon flight and I have the lucky option of 2 sites, west and east of our house in East Sussex. I would like to pick the right site so we get blown over our house and not away from it!

Can anyone tell me what the historical prevailing wind is in the SE UK? (at ballooning height (1000' agl?))

Once I know what to expect, I can book accordingly.

Thanks.

Ben.

[ShyTorque]

Southerly.......

[cldrvr]

ShyT naughty, they are Westerly to South Westerly. You can usually predict the general direction of the winds a few days in advance, depending on the location of areas of high and low pressure.

[PompeyPaul]

Rough answer

Rough answer, I take off from 24 much more often than 06. Therefore the site to the east of your house is far more likely, imho, to take you over it.

[cldrvr]

Pompey if you take off from 24 more often then 06 why tell the guy to pick the spot to the east of his house? Unless you perform all your takeoffs downwind?

[PompeyPaul]

Pompey if you take off from 24 more often then 06 why tell the guy to pick the spot to the east of his house? Unless you perform all your takeoffs downwind?

Good point, late at night. Wind is COMING from the west, so go to the field to the WEST of your house.

Funny all of this time later and I still find it confusing wind is described where it's coming from rather than where it's going to...

[cldrvr]

TR, how many days notice do you have? The metoffice is good in forecasting directional winds a good many days in advance. Fronts are big, ungainly and usely fairly predictable as to direction of movement, it helps that the earth does not change its rotational direction, for now at least.

[Training Risky]

Thanks for all the replies so far fellas,

I am thinking of 15 Aug - so I might get onto the Met Office for a long range forecast. When you type 'prevailing wind' into their website you don't get many useful answers.

If anyone wants pics of their towns/villages in the Wadhurst/Tunbridge Wells area while I am up, I will try my best ! (Camera in one hand, champers in the other hand, wife in the other hand.... hang on!)

Cheers,

[gpn01]

You want a met forecast of the prevaling wind in six weeks time ? H'mmm, that'll be as accurate as a forecast of the lottery numbers. Why don't you try a slightly different approach (1) contact airfields in the area and ask if they maintain records/trends for previous years; (2) Ask the balloon people what their thinking is. Whilst I haven't been ballooning I'm sure they can make use of the coriolis effect (seem to remember the adage that "height is right" - i.e. wind veers with increasing altitude). Therefore they have an element of directional control. Take a look at the Met Office synoptics too - probably a good a way as any of guessing what the wind will be a few days later.

[Lister Noble]

I don't know how close to the coast you are but during the day sea breezes come inland,ie Southerly wind and can run for some miles inland.
Lister

[chrisN]

A few days before your flight, look at Wind Map - Britain and then click on the arrow that shows forecast winds for Gatwick (or anywhere else in the SE). A table appears showing forecasts for that site several days ahead, including wind direction and strength.

Do it every day as it gets closer.

The balloon people will tell you roughly what wind strength would make it too high to allow your flight and need it to be deferred.

Hope this helps.

Chris N.

[BackPacker]

Thinking of taking the trouble and strife on a hot air balloon flight and I have the lucky option of 2 sites, west and east of our house in East Sussex. I would like to pick the right site so we get blown over our house and not away from it!

Is this one operator with the option of departing from two different sites, or is this two operators, each with their own site?

What you also need to consider is the wider area around your house. If it's a built-up area for miles around, with not many places to land a balloon, I doubt whether a balloon operator will choose his departure site so that he gets blown over that area.

A quick google search showed an operator mentioning 6 mph as surface wind limit, and with a flight duration of approximately one hour, that will get you maybe 10 miles away from base at most. How far are these sites from your home anyway?

Personally I would talk to the operator, but not make too much a deal out of it. Part of the fun of ballooning, to me, seems to be that you don't know exactly where you're going to end up.

And if I wanted to take pictures of my house, I'd rent a plane. Or better yet, a helicopter.

[gfunc]

The prevailing wind direction depends on the time of year. On average over the entire year the prevailing direction is from the southwest (approx 245 deg) over most of the UK. The Met Office have a couple of wind roses for the some stations in the southwest (strangely the only two I could find quickly) that show this:



Wikipedia helps the interpretation Wind rose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Over the summer months the UK tends to be on the eastern edge of an anticyclone that sits over the Atlantic. This generally gives westerlies, but as it moves around there are blasts of easterlies or southeasterlies over the country, which brings in a lot of the muck from the continent (hazetastic!).

I wouldn't use climatology for any sort of flight planning (or should that float planning?). Looking at the surface analysis pressure chart for the day of will give you a reasonable indication of which way you'll be pushed as the wind tends to blow pretty parallel to the isobars at 1,000ft or so.

Here's a link to the latest UKMO surface maps:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/bracka.gif

Cheers,

Gareth.

[Fg Off Max Stout]

TR,

That big corporation you work for (or did last time I looked) has a large number of friendly MetOs sitting around drinking coffee. Why not give them a bell - I'm sure they'd be happy to answer your question in far greater detail than you would ever want or think possible!

[Training Risky]

Ah!!!! Good point Max - I am on leave at the mo - but will put that plan into action on my return. And which big corporation do YOU now work for!

Thanks all for good advice - I will do my homework.

Ta!

[NeuterCane]

Comment that wind veers with increasing altitude is only true between surface and approximately 2000 FT AGL, although this height will vary on a day to day basis. Cause is due to frictional affects. Above about 2000 FT the influence of warm advection and cold advection are more important. In northern hemisphere (above ~2000 FT) wind veers with increasing altitude with warm advection (ahead of surface position of an approaching warm front); and backs with increasing altitude with cold advection (behind surface position of a departing cold front). In between the warm/cold fronts (in the warm sector) theoretically there is no change in wind direction (above ~2000 FT) since there is no warm/cold advection.
You also get warm advection ahead of an occlusion, and cold advection behind an occlusion (regardles of whether they are cold or warm occlusions).
;-)

[gfunc]

Urgh! Please don't use those horrible warm advection/cold advection ideas that plague meteorology these days!

It's just a overly complex way of describing the mean structure of a mid latitude cyclone. A lot of meteorologists use this type of technobabble to make things more complicated than they actually are and themselves seem more clever. A lot of the (US) national weather service guys use it in their forecasts to attribute developments if I ask them to explain physically they scrabble around for about fifteen minutes and then give up.

Gareth.

P.S. I better add I work in weather research and in collaboration with students and forecasters this has been become a regular pet peeve!