HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:14am PT
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Ed.....thanks for the Beaufort scale but this scale represents SUSTAINED winds.
Storm Force 64-72mph......Very rarely experienced on land; usually with widespread damage
Last night at the Sierra Azul RAWS (again), 1842 feet above sea level behind Los Gatos
30 5:32 S 38 G 70 55 54 100 4.08 54 26.2
30 4:32 S 41 G 71 54 53 100 3.85 54 26.2
30 3:32 S 41 G 74 54 53 100 3.68 54 26.2
30 2:32 S 45 G 83 54 53 100 3.52 54 26.2
30 1:32 S 43 G 72 54 53 100 3.41 54 26.2
30 0:32 S 36 G 72 54 53 100 3.33 54 26.2 Gusting over 70 MPH for 5 hours. Sustained only in the 40s
Those are the gusts that shook my house and woke my wife. I don't wake up till something big hits the house. Which it didn't last night.
Bugged the heck out of Sarah when we were at sea in full gales and I'd sleep my off time on the floor of the cabin.
Gusting to about 20 here now. calm as a sleeping kitten (comparatively)
Oh, and off topic: 3 inches of rain in last 24 hours.
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Ron Anderson
Trad climber
Soon to be Nipple suckling Liberal
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:25am PT
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you can be doing fifty mph down the road in washoe valley, toss a ciggy butt out and it will pass you..Seagulls often fly backwards there.
Rick,, too bad about the ruskys and their frames!;-)
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10b4me
Boulder climber
member since 2002
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:53am PT
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Cragman, that picture of Carson Peak is very impressive
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rrider
climber
Mckinleyville, Ca
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:54am PT
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Ron Anderson
Trad climber
Soon to be Nipple suckling Liberal
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:56am PT
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NICE form! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Nov 30, 2012 - 08:58am PT
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^^^^
just down the road (12 miles as the hawk flies) from my place and 1000 feet lower
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:02am PT
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It bears repeating that the density of air changes with altitude. Also (and this is kind of counter-intuitive) moisture Decreases density. So...40mph at sea level feels harder than a 40mph wind at 15,000 feet. Like the difference between getting hit by 20 mph bike vs a 20 mph car.
You can see from the graph below that as you increase height, density goes down, partial pressure of water vapor (vapor pressure) and temperature play a part also.
EDIT: Well I didn't do too good of a job getting the formulas over here, so here is a good reference for all of you that want to look deeper into the subject.
http://wahiduddin.net/calc/density_altitude.htm
EDIT2: This is also directly tied into why water boils at lower temperatures at higher altitudes. Think back to your 8th grade physical science class when they put a beaker of water under a vacuum bell and got it to "boil" at room temperature as they decreased the pressure.
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HuecoRat
Trad climber
NJ
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:11am PT
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Keep Hurricane Sandy in mind. The top winds were 70 mph and the destruction was enormous. I will try to post some photos of what the wind did near my house. Literally hundreds of trees uprooted or snapped off.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:13am PT
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Nice graph
So what is the mass density of air where I live at 800 meters when saturated with H2O?
Compared to dry air at sea level.
Or considered another way, when I was knocked off my feet on the summit of Rainier on a dry day, the wind speed would have been about 50% higher than required to knock me off my feet at sea level.
Or since I'm familiar with 30 kts of wind when sailing on the SF Bay, I'll be underestimating the wind speed when I'm at altitude?
Of course, without instrumentation, it's all a Wild Arsed Guess.
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The user formerly known as stzzo
climber
Sneaking up behind you
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:21am PT
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The flip side is that, since wind speed numbers don't mean much to most people, when someone says "60mph" i have no idea what that translates to and I think "Ok, i guess it was just blowing really hard".
So, I don't care if they're accurate.
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TradEddie
Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:34am PT
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I've only climbed at JT once, and it was incredibly windy, I had a fist jam deep in a crack when a gust blew me sideways and I thought my arm was going to break. Twentynine Palms weather station recorded gusts at 70mph that day. call it BS all you like, you'll know when its 70mph.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 30, 2012 - 09:38am PT
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Although Donini claims to be the Windmaster amongst us I've heard from
reliable sources that Guido can break a gale with his bare hands.
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:10am PT
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toss a ciggy butt out... Lame!
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:15am PT
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I don't know about all that sh#t but it was blowing like 90 here a minute ago.....
( . )( . )
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:16am PT
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I'm just the land guy. Guido gets the 71% covered by ocean.
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toadgas
Trad climber
los angeles
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:19am PT
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was on top of Baldy near Los Angeles in winter and id guess the wind speed in excess of 200mph once i had to strap myeself ot a tree
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Riley Wyna
Trad climber
A crack near you
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Nov 30, 2012 - 11:51am PT
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The top winds were 70 mph and the destruction was enormous
Most of that was flooding and storm surge though.
I love weather and ran outside into storms even when i was a kid.
Ive been in three hurricanes now here in Texas- I've been out in 70 mile an hour winds driving around- sure it is blowing hard but it is not insane - now if you get gusts on top of that ..that is insane..
50 mile an hour winds with gusts to 70 is kind of crazy but not insane.
70 mile an hour winds with gusts up and above that starts getting insane.
People probably arnt lying they are just stating the gusts as the wind speed - plenty of climbers have been in 60 mile an hour gusts.
Em and I bouldered at the Buttermilks in 60 mile an hour gusts 2 years ago.
You had to hols on tight and get down on top of boulders when gusts hit - it was real hard..
I've been in big blizzards in Canada also and a storm in the Arctic.
You make me realise i need to get out in a lot more storms and take readings!!! yayayaya
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 30, 2012 - 11:58am PT
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And then there is spending a night in a tent at 10,000' when an official
weather station nearby, but 3000' lower, recorded winds of 105 mph. Two
ice axes, two ice tools, flukes, deadmen (lol), and X ice screws did
the job. Thank you JanSport! The proto tent survived with only two of the
three poles breaking. (but didn't tear the sleeves!)
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Nov 30, 2012 - 06:00pm PT
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I got to experience winds in the neighborhood of 50mph recently. The wind speed was not that big of deal. The problem was that about 500ft to the west the wind was blowing to the south at 50mph. 500 ft. to the east the wind was blowing north at 50mph. Directly overhead at about 1500ft was an inverted hersheys kiss shaped cloud reaching for the ground. The most dangerous winds were wrapped in clouds and sounded like they had a freight train in them. Highest gusts in the storms exceeded well over 100mph. We didn't have trees down. We had forests disappear.
One thing I learned that day..........if you are a tornado chaser, you most likely do not want to catch one!
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