Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Summer winds in November

In the summer, Cape Cod is often the windiest place on the US East Coast, with southwest winds that are boosted by thermals. This summer was an exception, with very few windy days. But it looks like the summer winds are finally coming - in November! Here is a wind graph for Kalmus from the last two days:
Sunday was nice enough, with averages near 20 mph for about 5 hours. Monday was even better, with averages above 20 the entire day, and 3 hours with winds between 25 and 30 mph. Both days, the actual averages were 5-10 mph higher than the forecast. Looks like we got a nice thermal boost, despite the short days! All that sun made the temperatures of around 50 degrees F (10 C) for both air and water quite tolerable. Sunday's low forecast and moderate winds drew only about 6 windsurfers to Kalmus; Monday better forecast and higher winds attracted a several more, including Martin, Drew, Bruce, and a few others.

I think the crowds will get even bigger next weekend, which starts on Friday with Veteran's Day. The weather has been so warm that the water temperatures are going up a bit, and the wind forecast looks great:
The predicted winds of 25-30 mph would be lovely enough - but with a 5 mph thermal boost like earlier this week, we may see low 30s. Even Sunday, which looks a tad weak in the forecast, could end up being very nice with a bit of thermal boost.

Friday is still 3 days away, and wind forecasts this time of the year have the annoying tendency to look good a few days away, only to go down the closer we get. However, this seemed to be more the case for NW winds, and less so for SW winds, so I'll remain optimistic. Hope to see you all on the water this weekend!