Latest News - 13/04/2019

A Random Weather Short'cast!



 Bill has posted his views re. the weather for the next few days and in to next weekend.


Saturday April 13th. Some random thoughts about the weather, now and for the Easter Holidays.
Some schools have already been on their Easter break and that means some of you will be having time off work. I too unexpectedly find I have some time off this coming week so my thoughts naturally turned to windsurfing. But where is the wind?
The Jet Stream is fragmented with a big gap in the flow right over the UK, and that usually means little wind. There is a blocking high to the east over Scandinavia but plenty of low pressure out to the west.
I noticed last week that Windguru was giving three stars for Cornwall this weekend but the wind on the Met Office charts looked less – unless you made the trip as far as Ireland. However Windguru and other GFS-based forecasts were right and, as I write this, it is in fact blowing hard in the Southwest. So maybe I should have made a trip down there – to Bigbury or Marazion – although this wind is E/SE so that’s no good for Gwithian. Plus it’s a bit cold and there’s some rain due down there.
That west country wind is forecast to last until Monday, with the Met Office predicting a new low forming off Lands End. The blocking high sends these lows northwards, so there’s not much heading our way.
Here in the Southeast, we have a chilly easterly wind for the coming days and that is mostly moderate, but could freshen to 20mph+ ESE on Monday morning.
The E wind then drops on Tuesday but backs more NE, and then Windguru have it getting strong again with a sailable Northeasterly setting up from Wednesday and for the first part of Easter Weekend. That direction of course usually means a trip to Pevensey or Pagham – but don’t make plans just yet as the Met Office have a lot less wind and next weekend is still way off in reliable forecast terms. On the plus side, the weather should warm up next week, despite the NE wind.
So at the moment I’m pinning my hopes on a port tack session on Monday, if it gets strong enough. Unfortunately, with breakfast time high water the tidal current will be heading the wrong way for an easterly, and the wind probably drops by low water which is at about 3pm. So we could be skunked. Might be OK for big sails and kiters though.
The Easter weekend forecast will need looking at again because of the lack of agreement right now.
Watch out if you are checking local weather sites that several are down at the moment. Shoreham beach site is working, but the Lancing and Worthing beach ones aren’t. The Worthing sailing club one gives pretty accurate reading, and was back up when I last checked today.

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