Mean wind speeds across southern UK so far this year

[xmetman]

Here is a chart of mean wind speeds so far this year across the south of the UK.

All I do is add up all the hourly SYNOP mean wind speeds and take the mean.

A part from on top of Great Dun Fell the windiest place on the chart is the Sevenstones Lightship with a mean on 16.7 knots, in fact the central zone of the English Channel is surprisingly windy too.

Let me know if the values look reasonable and I haven't screwed up in some way.

[Brian Wakem]

Have you included all the zeros?  The mean for my station is just 0.7 knots, but it is very sheltered.

-- 

Brian Wakem

Lower Bourne, Farnham, Surrey

http://www.brianwakem.co.uk/weather

Live obs @ 17:38:49 : 22.2C, DP 16.2C, RH 69%, 0.0 mm

[Jack Harrison]

Scotland data please.  We are still [just] part of the UK:-)  But for how long?

Jack (born in England, living in Scotland but basically a European)

PS I do use that excellent word dreich and buy tatties at Sainsbury's

[Graham Easterling]

Looks OK to me, as far as Cornwall is concerned. Sevenstones really catches the wind if it's SE or NW, as it funnels around Lands End.

I think Gwennap Head would beat it, thought it's almost calm at the moment, it's been a very still day.

Take a look at February 1990, 3 days no data but 14 days exceeded 60mph,  4 days > 80mph, 1 day over 90mph. That's just a winter month I pulled out at random! It's a spot where not being able to stand is a common occurrence,

https://geographic.org/global_weather/weather_data_2.php?month=02&year=1990&id=038060-99999&path=weather_stations/028140_060669/038060-99999.txt&name=Gwennap%20Head&country=United%20Kingdom

In fact Gwennap holds the English record for a low level site. From the MetO. The 1979 gale did a huge amount of damage west of Penzance, mainly roofs sucked out on the lee side.

Northern Ireland	108 knots / 124 mph	12 January 1974	Kilkeel (County Down)
England	103 knots / 118 mph	15 December 1979	Gwennap Head (Cornwall)
Scotland	123 knots / 142 mph	13 February 1989	Fraserburgh (Aberdeenshire)
Wales	108 knots / 124 mph	28 October 1989	Rhoose (Vale of Glamorgan)

Graham

Penzance

[xmetman]

Graham

Thanks to my wife who knocked at the door - we got a conducted tour of the tower on our holiday to Lamorna last year, and looked out through a huge pair of binoculars out to Sevenstones Lightship.

It's a shame there isn't an AWS that produces a SYNOP report as they did in the past.

This chart from 1973 shows full SYNOPs from Gwennap coast guard station as well as from the Lizard lighthouse.

Of course the fact that the anemometer sits in a building on top of a 200 foot cliff might have some kind of effect on the wind speed!

I think all automatic lighthouses should be fitted with an AWS - it shouldn't be too complicate to do. 

The electric supply is there and so are the comms - so what's the big problem?

If they used a Vaisala Hawk AWS they could simply plug a new one in if there were any sensor problems.