Hi all, I've been delving deeper into the use of a barometer to help improve my ability to forecast. But I keep getting this nagging sense that it can only confirm the info the I'm getting from other weather signs. So I'm looking for other barometer users or others skilled in the use of a barometer to tell me what a barometer can do for me that a study of the sky cannot. Put another way, I'm finding that the barometer I just bought is able to tell me no more than I can see for myself by looking at the clouds and feeling the wind. Barometers measure what has happened not what will happen so by themselves they do not forecast. Pressure by itself doesn't tell the whole story; location of air masses along with their temp, moisture level and pressure seemed to be required as well. So, are there any barometer users out there that can help me understand the value of a barometer? I'm certainly not trying to trash barometer owners. I just want to understand their use so I can take advantage of their capabilities. Thanks in advance for your comments, Jed *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Jed, I own a few devices that can also serve as barometer, a Suunto Vector being the latest, but I've never really used one to forecast the weather. Nowadays we're spoiled by professional weather services, weather maps, radar, satellite pictures, and much more. Just a "spot" measurement of atmospheric pressure or of it's trend does not tell us anymore than what we already know by other means. However, in the past there were no weather services, at least none that made their findings available to a broad public. In those days, any help in forecasting the local weather was welcome to those people that needed to know, and the "weather glass" was one of those. You should also not forget that specific relations between behaviour of the pressure and the weather is dependent on the area, and also on the season. In my area (Western Europe) a constant high is generally an indication of lasting good weather, especially with easterly winds, while a sudden drop indicates an oncoming low, which normally brings bad weather. If I had no other means of telling, this might keep me from paddling, but nowadays it's much more convenient to get a much more detailed forecast from newspaper, television, radio or the web. regards, Kees *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Barometers can be used to confirm/identify the actual passage of weather events, or to synch your position in regards to the larger zone forecasts at work. Many pocket baros, such as those on Suunto's watches, have an alarm feature to signal the abrupt change in barometric pressure. If you have a zone forecast for you paddling area and know that a front is supposed to be moving through your location at some point in the day, monitoring the pressure gradient change could help you to confirm the local conditions as tied to the larger weather force vs. a more odd and quirky expression of local topography, etc. It would also tip you off to begin looking for subsequent shifts in expression of weather...backing winds...etc. Those who carry GPS devices also take compasses. Tide chart datum needs to be checked against local topographic quirks. We select an array of sources to provide the clearer picture...I should think small and reasonably accurate barometers provide a worthwhile extra measure of information. -Will *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi, When paddling in Canada's eastern arctic a few years ago, I used a barometer a lot because I was concerned about being caught too far offshore by foul weather. While conditions are not the same as those in more temperate climes, I found the barometer not to be a sufficiently reliable predictor of coming events. It seem to jump all over the place which indicated very unsettled weather. The actual weather moved from warm, calm and sunny to cold and very windy a few days later. I suppose the erratic barometer at least told me not to trust the weather, but to listen carefully to my gut feelings and head to shore earlier than I might otherwise have done. That has to be worth something if one is taking more than the usual risks when paddling. Since then I have come across a booklet called the Sagar Weathercaster which uses barometric pressure, cloud cover and wind direction to make weather predictions. Using it here in Quebec, I have found it moderately accurate. Write me off the list and I'll give you an address for the publisher. Michael Bradley *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hello Jed, kees and Paddlewise, Jed you are partially correct in your first thought that what you see, hear, feel and smell will tell you a lot about what's going to happen with the weather. However, meteorological forecasts can only give a general tendency for fairly large areas. Barometric pressure will fall with the approach and arrival of a low-pressure system which, as you know, usually means a deterioration in the weather. This, as you say, in our day and age is perfectly well forewarned by the weather forecasting services, so if you are not on an extended trip without communications, your barometer will be of little use in these circumstances. If you don't have the weather forecast, though, your barometer indication will warn you of an oncoming front and the faster it falls, the more violent the change in weather. You will, of course, see the clouds coming too! Another frequent situation is this: low barometric pressure over a very large area, combined with fairly warm conditions and high humidity can easily provoke thunderstorms. The onset of the storm will be felt often by gusts of wind and starting even before the gusts, a rapid drop in pressure. Your barometer will be telling you to get out of Dodge ASAP. The weather forecast will not be able to give you such precise warning of the storm. In the mountains here in Switzerland, when hiking, we always take an altimeter, which is in fact the same device as a barometer and can be used the same way; sitting on a high mountain pass at 3'800m above sea-level, eating a well-earned lunch, you look at the altimeter and see that you are now at 3'850m, without moving, means the pressure is dropping and it's time to leave. It has saved us many times from at best a cold shower and at worst, lightning strikes. To be useful, your barometer must travel with you. You must check it regularly against the conditions you see. You will quickly get a "feel" for what it's telling you. Hope this helps, Kevin D ----- Original Message ----- From: Jed Luby .... keep getting this nagging sense that it can only confirm the info the I'm getting from other weather signs. ....to tell me what a barometer can do for me that a study of the sky cannot. Put another way, I'm finding that the barometer I just bought is able to tell me no more than I can see for myself by looking at the clouds and feeling the wind. Barometers measure what has happened not what will happen so by themselves they do not forecast. Pressure by itself doesn't tell the whole story; location of air masses along with their temp, moisture level and pressure seemed to be required as well. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Here is an article from the weather service that tells about how to use a barometer to predict the weather. Basically you are looking for changing barometer readings and coupling that with wind direction. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wfbarrow.htm But basically, the weather service gathers data from all over the world and then applies it to its model of the weather. This is based, I think, on the chaos theory which says "if a butterfly fans its wings on Monday, it will storm on Thursday" or something like that. And the most important thing about barometers is that you would like to know if it is falling in the area from which storms will come. The more information you have from the storm tract, the longer in advance you can predict. There are a lot of other variables involved, including things like upwelling in the Oceans (EL Nino) and more than I want to know. But the new long-range predictions we make are due putting a whole host of variables into the model, not to any one measurement in any one place. Pet rocks also work well to record the current conditions. :) Marilyn Kircus Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 09:46:33 -0400 From: "Jed Luby" <JLuby_at_TeamNorthAtlantic.com> Subject: [Paddlewise] Barometers - essential tool? Hi all, I've been delving deeper into the use of a barometer to help improve my ability to forecast. But I keep getting this nagging sense that it can only confirm the info the I'm getting from other weather signs. So I'm looking for other barometer users or others skilled in the use of a barometer to tell me what a barometer can do for me that a study of the sky cannot. Put another way, I'm finding that the barometer I just bought is able to tell me no more than I can see for myself by looking at the clouds and feeling the wind. Barometers measure what has happened not what will happen so by themselves they do not forecast. Pressure by itself doesn't tell the whole story; location of air masses along with their temp, moisture level and pressure seemed to be required as well. So, are there any barometer users out there that can help me understand the value of a barometer? I'm certainly not trying to trash barometer owners. I just want to understand their use so I can take advantage of their capabilities. Thanks in advance for your comments, Jed - > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hello Marilyn and Paddlewise, I checked out the USA Today link that Marilyn posted and agree with all of it, however, their text says: "SNIP...barometer falls steadily, a storm is approaching from the south or southwest, and its center will pass near or to the south of the observer within 12 to 24 hours....SNIP ...."As a rule, winds from the east quadrants and falling barometric pressure indicate foul weather, and winds shifting to the west quadrants indicate clearing and fair weather, but again there are exceptions and in some parts of the country these rules do not apply." I'd like to point out that the first statement concerns a weather front, not a thunderstorm. In thundery weather, the rapid fall in the barometer indicates an *Imminent* storm, maybe even less than 30 minutes! The second statement about direction from which fair or foul weather comes may be true there "with exceptions", but in other parts of the world, such as here in Switzerland, the storms move in from the NW to SW. So it's a good idea to carefully research this point before paddling in regions you don't know before hoping to use your barometer. Hope I didn't repeat what someone already said, Cheers, Kevin D *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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