Big wind predicted for Auckland and Qingdao

by PredictWind.Com and Sail-World on 25 Jul 2008
Various weather services in New Zealand are predicting a one in 10 year storm to hit Auckland and northern New Zealand on Saturday 26 July 2008.

The prognosis from www.predictwind.com!PredictWind.com shows how this wind situation will develop using their proprietary Weather Model, that uses two separate input sources from USA and Canada

The above graphic shows the gale at its expected peak around 1500hrs NZT - read the colour bar at the side to gauge wind strength. Those who are subscribers to PredictWind will be able to see an animation of the breeze building from a light breeze around midnight on the 25th July to a full storm 15 hours later. The grey coloured area represents winds of 50kts and the reddish shades something less. Arrows show the direction of the wind. The white coastal outline is that of Auckland Harbour centred on Takapuna .

Below the two graphs show the build of the wind shown in knots and the second the direction the wind is expected to take at a given time.

The solid line represents prediction data from US sources, and the dotted line represents data from Canadian sources. Where there is significant gap between the two lines, there is a discrepancy between the two prediction feeds meaning the real prognosis lies somewhere between the two lines. Where there is only a small gap, it indicated the two prediction feeds are in near agreement, and the and the confidence in the prediction is much higher.

Below is a text readout of the data contained in the graphs and graphic animation. The readout shows wind strength in knots and direction for a given time. Note that the actual recorded gust could be at least 10% more, maybe as much as 15% more than than this prediction, which is a high average predicted wind strength. The prediction shows the wind being an easterly of 22kts at 6.00am before swinging to the SE during the day and increasing to a maximum of 55kts at 4.00pm. The text shown is for the US feed only.

Local Text Forecast for Takapuna: CMC
Date Hour Speed (Knots) Direction (Magnetic)
25 1300 7 170
25 1400 6 190
25 1500 5 190
25 1600 8 190
25 1700 8 180
25 1800 7 160
25 1900 9 170
25 2000 9 170
25 2100 10 170
25 2200 10 160
25 2300 9 160
26 0000 9 140
26 0100 13 110
26 0200 12 110
26 0300 16 110
26 0400 16 110
26 0500 17 100
26 0600 22 90
26 0700 25 90
26 0800 22 100
26 0900 25 100
26 1000 30 110
26 1100 32 100
26 1200 32 110
26 1300 39 120
26 1400 42 120
26 1500 49 120
26 1600 55 120
26 1700 53 130
26 1800 53 130
26 1900 43 130
26 2000 31 50
26 2100 30 60

And over in Qingdao .....

For more information and to subscribe to this unique service go to www.predictwind.com!PredictWind.com