Whatever happened to prevailing SW winds?

[Graham Easterling]

They seem to be something of a rarity, at lest here in the far SW.

The lack of the prevailing wind direction has lead to the sand on beaches ending up in unusual spots.

Taking NW facing Sennen as an example, the prevailing winds tend to result in a clockwise water circulation in the bay (something I learnt the hard way when snorkelling!) obviously greatly variable with the state of the tide. There is in effect a counter current which run SW towards the harbour, piling the sand up against the harbour wall. The position of the main beach is also determined by this water circulation.

With the current being far weaker of late, the beach has effective moved somewhat away from the village, towards Gwenver, an extension of Sennen at low tide.

Back to the weather and after a dip in temperature to a maximum of 13.9C on Tuesday, a much warmer 16.2C in sunny periods yesterday. Today, low cloud quickly cleared to give sunny periods, though cloud is now starting to return. Winds much lighter than forecast a couple of days back, with a maximum close to 16C - I haven't checked they exact figure.

With the offshore winds on the north coast, and a decent Atlantic swell, there's been some great surf over recent days.

Gwithian, St Ives Bay, yesterday

 

Graham

Penzance

[Graham Easterling]

Similar day so far today. A bit more breeze, an E  F3-4 currently. Plenty of sunshine though, just a few, insignificant thin patches of cloud. Any thicker cloud still well to the east.

Penzance prom, 10:25 (high tide), with the onshore F4 E wind. The air originates off the land of the Lizard peninsula, so no real risk of low cloud off the sea suddenly appearing. 

Graham

Penzance