850hPa question

sparrowcar

Hi All,

Myself and 2 lurkers/posters from this forum were on a hike on Lugnaquilla http://mountainviews.ie/summit/13/ in yesterdays weather and we got blasted by some incredible winds.

As the summit (925m) is not far off the height for wind readings at 850hPa my questions is this. Is there anywhere online I can find information about the winds that would have been in that area at that height yesterday?

We use Accu mountain weather but this is only a forecast and not actuals.

Su Campu

One way to look at the actual measurements is by looking at sounding data (from weather balloons). The one at Valentia is here and Castor Bay (Lough Neagh) is here. Pressure level heights are given in metres, and you can see it's more accurate to look at say the 925 or 900 hPa levels than the 850 hPa.

Around midday yesterday winds were around 45 knots at Valentia and 59 knots at Castor Bay,both falling off to around 20-25 knots by evening time, so somewhere in between is probably what you felt at Lugnaquilla.

Here is what the GFS had for Dublin Airport for 1500 yesterday afternoon, showing 60 knot winds at 900 hPa (just under 1,000 m). This is a forecast rather than actual measurements, but it is for just +3 hours and is much nearer to where you're interested in. The actual 950 hPa windmap is shown below, showing the strengthening winds at the frontal boundary moving off into the Irish Sea.

Sponge Bob

The only balloon sent up regularly by Met Eireann is the Valentia one. It goes up 4 times daily less than an hour before the GFS fixes.

http://www.met.ie/about/valentiaobservatory/radiosonde.asp

sparrowcar

Thanks both for that.

We all work in the airport and would be very aware what 40/50 knots feel like as winds in that range can affect airport operations. We estimated that sustained mean speeds were 40-50kts and some of the gusts felt in excess of 70ts for at least 2 hours.

Sponge Bob

95km was forecast for yesterday...on this page here. You are correct.

http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Kippure/forecasts/757

also see this useful tool.

http://www.mountain-forecast.com/weather_maps/Ireland

sparrowcar

Nice SB, thanks.