OBX Windsurfing Weather Page
compiled by Todd Ferrante, last update 4/20/09
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GMT stands for Greenwitch Mean Time. Z stands for Zulu. These
are equivalent ways of specifying global time often used in reporting
weather.
To convert to EDT subtract 4 hours.
Current conditions:
Past and future conditions. Clicking graphs will link to source websites.
Manteo
Hatteras
Often used links: I have not yet come up with
a
way to get this information directly on this page.
- Local
forecast. (from weather underground) Includes wind forecast for
about
18 hours in advance. Current conditions are from Newport News
airport. Link at bottom of page to useful weather history. Also, the forecast
from weather.com.
- North Carolina
weather
roundup. Current conditions around the area. Scroll down for OBX data. Probably the best
tool
for judging current conditions. Extremely fast loading because there
are
no graphics. Updated within minutes of the top of the hour.
- 24
hour
history,
KPHF. 24
hour
history,
KLFI. Shows current conditions and conditions for every hour for
the
past 24. Very useful for correlating your windsurfing experiances to
wind
speed at the airport.
- OBX sailing sites A page from the local windsurfing club, WET.
- National Hurricane Center.
It turns out that this is a useful link to have when in the OBX.
- Cool
graphical display that shows tide levels and times with sun and moon
rise and set times. Tides at: Yorktown;
Messick
Point; CBBT;
HRBT;
JRB.
An important safety tip when sailing at Yorktown is to avoid sailing there if the tide is running in the same direction as the wind is blowing. Also, avoid sailing at Factory Point South at low tide, as it gets dangerously shallow.
The maps: Here is what is happening across
the
country and in our region. These maps are pulled in from all over
the place. Sometimes the servers that host them go down.
Usually
this is temporary. If problems are ongoing, I pull the map and
try
to replace it with something else. Remember, wind blows clockwise
around high pressure systems and counter clockwise around lows.
The
higher the pressure gradient (more tightly spaced isobars) the harder
it
blows. Cool wind from the north and damp warm air from the south
meet and form stormy frontal systems. With these simple
guidelines
and a summers worth of watching, you will probably predict the wind as
well or better than the pros.
Maps from Ohio State University.
Current windspeed:
Current pressure and wind:
An animated history from Weather Underground. This is like the coolest thing ever...
forecast from Weather.com.
Maps from Intellicast.
forecast for today 2pm EDT. Use the Intellicast forecasts with caution. I've found them to be off in the past.
forecast for tomorrow 2pm EDT.
Graphical wind forecasts from NOAA.
From 8am to 8pm, the times are correct. From 8pm to 8am, the times are 12 hours off. Sorry, but this is a fluke on the NOAA site.
forecast for today 3pm EST.
forecast for tomorrow 3pm EST
And the day after tomorrow 3pm EST
Maps from Unisys.
Local dopplar radar
From WAVY:
From WAVY:
From Weather
Underground:
