Forums > Kitesurfing   Western Australia

What is going on with wind forecast?

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Created by Swavek > 9 months ago, 28 Apr 2019
Swavek
WA, 393 posts
28 Apr 2019 6:38AM
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'14-17 knots at Melville'
Jumped out of bed at 5 am, took me nearly an hour to pack and drive to the river - more like 3-5 knots

KiteBud
WA, 1515 posts
28 Apr 2019 11:33AM
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In Perth, any wind that isn't a sea breeze is unreliable and difficult to forecast. Also, these ''non sea breeze'' winds can vary quite a bit depending where you are exactly. Even a couple of KM's apart you can have very different winds. Windy.com offers a much more precise forecast for any specific area. For example, the forecast from windy.com for your area this early morning was for no more than 10 knots.

Swavek
WA, 393 posts
28 Apr 2019 12:46PM
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Thanks mate, time to explore 'Windy.com'.
Three days in a row I got there and did not get to go at all....
tomorrow looks better :-)

MikeyG
WA, 156 posts
28 Apr 2019 1:09PM
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North east's aren't great at Attadale and are terrible at Melville beach road in Applecross (looks like that pic is Applecross). Any east at Applecross and you get a big wind shadow. You need to head to that little beach near Applecross Jetty in a NE. I believe the Melville Water anemometer is about 200m off majestic close so it's a lot more exposed to the NE.

But it's fickle in the river all the time and watch out for the warning signs of a drop in the wind.

I had a 1km swim on Friday - launched at Attadale dog beach. When the wind finally went and my kite fell out of the sky for the 3rd and final time, I was nearer Dalkeith than Attadale.

Swavek
WA, 393 posts
28 Apr 2019 4:49PM
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Actually went to Point Walter dog beach straight after and it was similar. Later in the morning it picked up but only for 15 min. Seriously considering foil kite, something to get me going from 8-12 kn. From what I read 15m FS Soul should fit the bill at my weight (105 pies, Moses 633 wing).

cauncy
WA, 8407 posts
29 Apr 2019 3:33PM
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Just got up to 28 knts here
was only meant to be 22
so wrong, but goodkeep it up I say

davinchi
WA, 31 posts
30 Apr 2019 10:32AM
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Select to expand quote
Swavek said..
Thanks mate, time to explore 'Windy.com'.
Three days in a row I got there and did not get to go at all....
tomorrow looks better :-)


Hey Swavek, here are some tips for finding a decent E'ly forecast for the river using Windy:
- overlay kite/ws spots in windy layers and select either Pelican point or Lucky Bay, either spot is fine and wont change the forecast winds.
- compare models... generally speaking in Australia, ECMWF is the "go-to" model to use in most situations. Forget aout NEMS in the southern hemishere.
- look at the Airgram (see photo) (or just look at wind gusts in the basic meteogram) to see what winds are aloft from the surface. Just look at the second to third row of wind barbs from the bottom to give you an idea on what is "going to"/"could" mix down to the surface. eg: Friday morning (see photo) and up to midday shows 25kts of NE'ly to N'ly potentially mixing down. E to E/NE'ly is ideal at Attadale dog beach and Point Walter sandbar with plently of wind funneling as the river narrows between Dalkieth and Point Walter.






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"What is going on with wind forecast?" started by Swavek