Comments on: West Seattle weather: Wind advisory extended, gusts up to 50 mph

By: sam-c

sam-c — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:51:30 +0000

thanks again. I was a little paranoid after one of our trees came down during the thanksgiving eve wind event. luckily this last one stayed up last night. sad to say goodbye to the alders. wish they lasted longer.

By: WSLenz

WSLenz — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:04:56 +0000

Some wind related links for fun:

http://nwwind.net/wind.php?st=WA
http://i90.atmos.washington.edu/ferry/Ferryjs/mainframe1.htm
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sew/get.php?wfo=sew&pil=cwf&sid=sew

By: Meteorologist Patrick

Meteorologist Patrick — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 03:16:40 +0000

@ katherine, by definition the arrow on a weather vane would point the direction the wind IS blowing so if the wind is blowing FROM the South the weather vane arrow would point North

By: KatherineL

KatherineL — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:12:11 +0000

If the wind is blowing from the south, wouldn’t it blow the vane around to the north? I just checked the dictionary; it says, “a southerly wind blows from the south.”

By: Meteorologist Patrick

Meteorologist Patrick — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:53:29 +0000

@ Sam-C CORRECT

For future reference if you hear the wind is Northerly it IS blowing from the north and so on and so on

By: sam-c

sam-c — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:18:20 +0000

thanks ! so it sounds like I have it backwards. if the wind is in ‘southerly’ direction, it’s coming from the south, not blowing towards to the south, it sounds like.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:02:31 +0000

Sam-c,

The direction from which the wind is blowing is what weather people always use. I think it is because a wind vane points towards where the wind is coming from.

By: Meteorologist Patrick

Meteorologist Patrick — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:59:34 +0000

@ Sam-C

The wind shift will occur just behind the main frontal passage as the gradients offshore turn onshore and this is also when the wind speeds come up as well as the baroclinic band associated with the front moves across the area and that in turn will switch the precip to showers and usher in a much colder airmass.

By: WSB

WSB — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:57:07 +0000

In reply to sam-c.

It’s coming out of the south-southwest here currently … that’s the direction in the forecast …

By: sam-c

sam-c — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:15:03 +0000

right now the wind is blowing north, and the NOAA / NWS report says it’s gonna blow in a southerly direction. I wonder if any weather pros on here know when the switch will happen ?
(we have a tree scheduled to be cut down next week because it is a hazard- that’s when we could get on the schedule. if it falls, I would prefer for it to fall south)