Wind nomenclature

[gwheelo]

I am looking for proper titles for the various wind values available through cumulus and the Beteljuice Ajax IDs.

My site is situated in Catalonia, Spain in an area which has a distinct name for each point on the compass. "Prevailing" I believe, refers to the most common wind direction for a particular location and therefore would not be suited to the local names except one. "Immediate" or "latest" would refer to the most recent reading and perhaps there is a proper meteorological term. Then we have the "Gust" , "Average", etc.. Can anyone assign the "official" terms to the various direction measurements?

To see the Catalan winds go to: http://www.wheelocknet.net/cumulus/now.htm and click on "Click for Wind Details" located just below the wind rose.

The wind displayed on my site incorrectly as "Prevailing" and hi-lited on the wind rose. is based on value #46 of the realtime.txt file which should be the 10 minute average wind bearing in degrees - which, by the way Steve, is detailed in the help files as belonging to Solar radiation. One of us is incorrect. I have been know to mix up my data many times before - but it seems to work correctly. So - in a nutshell - I need the proper term for the ten minute average and the latest reading of the wind bearing.

George Wheelock

[beteljuice]

That one really is a can of worms George

Look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevailing_winds and also the discussion tab !

Normal speak is that which is normal at that time, but how long is your time ?

Weather-wise it may be global, local, and /or seasonal (eg. Monsoon) ......

Good luck

[steve]

The wind displayed on my site incorrectly as "Prevailing" and hi-lited on the wind rose. is based on value #46 of the realtime.txt file which should be the 10 minute average wind bearing in degrees - which, by the way Steve, is detailed in the help files as belonging to Solar radiation.

Item 46 is solar radiation, numbering from 1 as in the help file.

The problem with the naming of the various wind speeds in Cumulus is that no two station types supply the same thing, hence this rather vague and unsatisfactory 'latest' terminology (There's also the problem with keeping the labels short). And rarely do the values that the stations report come close to anything that has a meteorological definition.

I think the WMR968 reports its wind speeds every 14 seconds, and it supplies what it calls a 'gust' and a 'speed'. I don't know how it derives the two values, but I think the 'speed' is averaged over 60 seconds. The 'gust' value is the one Cumulus reports as 'latest', and the highest of those in the last 10 minutes is reported as 'gust' (so it's really a 'peak gust'). If you have it configured to do so, the 'speed' displayed by Cumulus is the average of the 'latest' figures over the last 10-minutes (so it's really a '10-minute average speed'). I chose the 10-minute intervals for peak gust and average speed as I believe these to be the intervals used most commonly in meteorology.

[gwheelo]

Isn't it great when everyone is correct! You are counting from 1 and I am counting from zero - both right - but that makes me the one who should have looked to see where the count starts. One day I will think the question through on my own.

Concerning the nomenclature - now I am at a loss. "Current average wind bearing" and "last recorded wind bearing" just do not have the quick precision appropriate! What to do - what to do?

GW

[steve]

Isn't it great when everyone is correct! You are counting from 1 and I am counting from zero - both right - but that makes me the one who should have looked to see where the count starts.

As a programmer it felt more natural to me to index them from zero, but then I would have had to explain what I was doing, so I went for just numbering them.

Concerning the nomenclature - now I am at a loss. "Current average wind bearing" and "last recorded wind bearing" just do not have the quick precision appropriate! What to do - what to do?

Yes - this is the same problem I have in Cumulus. I'm trying to think of better ways of labelling the wind data in Cumulus 2.

[gwheelo]

Here is how I am dancing around the nomenclature - for now. http://www.wheelocknet.net/cumulus/wind_rose.html

GW