Understanding Marine Weather

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Much of our weather, and particulrly weather that really affects sailors is often rather small scale. It may be predicted in general terms but rarely in detail. These pages have been written to help sailors understand about some very local effects that are not always well explained in text books or the sailing ,magazines. On some pages, conventional wisdom is challenged.

• How fog forms
  
  • How visibility is measured on unmanned light vessels
• Does the wind veer as it crosses the coast and why, or why not? Other coastal effects
  
  • Is it better to measure or estimate wind strength?
  • Weight of wind
• Why does the wind not always veer in a gust as the books say?
• Thunder.Lightning and CAPE
• How sea breezes and land breezes really form and behave
  
  • An example of a large sea breeze effect
• Why waves and swell form and behave. Should they be predicted?
  
  • Do atmospheric tides affect weather?
    
  • How air pressure affects tide height
• The jet stream
• When is a hurricane not a hurricane?

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